DELIGHTED Burnley boss Stan Ternent hailed his derby heroes after they exorcised their Ewood Park demons to put a smile back on the face of Turf Moor last night.

The Clarets bounced back from their 5-0 mauling by Blackburn by beating play-off hopefuls Preston 3-0 with one of their best performances of the season.

First-half goals from Ian Moore and Kevin Ball and a 73rd-minute strike by Glen Little swept Ternent's men to their biggest League win since promotion back to Division One.

And Ternent paid tribute to his players, who collected their first victory over Preston in six attempts.

He said: "After the defeat at Blackburn I thought the players responded brilliantly and all credit to them. But again they've done that on numerous occasions.

"I think the criticism hurt them and rightly so. In the first half against Blackburn there wasn't a lot in the game at all. It just didn't go for us and in the second half we were well and truly turned over.

"So you've got to say that the players showed fantastic character and resilience to come back and beat an extremely good team which Preston are."

And after defeats to Blackburn, Preston and Bolton earlier this season, Ternent was glad of the change of fortunes and a first success against one of the Clarets' Lancashire rivals. "That was important because we haven't done that, certainly on the television. It helps to repay a little from Blackburn, although that will go down in the annals of Burnley history that we got turned over 5-0.

"But the players have bounced back, and I hope it helps a little," he added.

Burnley, with Dean West and Paul Smith in for the injured pair of Mitchell Thomas and Graham Branch, re-grouped superbly following the disappointment of defeat to Rovers and had Preston on the back foot inside three minutes when record signing Ian Moore bagged a welcome first goal in eight games.

"I'm absolutely delighted for him because he worked his socks off," said the manager. "Gareth Taylor was terrific and I haven't had a bad player. They all played very well.

"The third goal was the important goal. At the start of the second half they had a lot of possession so I decided to change it to five across midfield and we got another goal and I thought we ran out comfortable winners in the end. We played quite well I thought and passed the ball pretty well apart from a 10-minute spell at the start of the second half. But I don't think Preston had a clear-cut opportunity which reflects well on my players."

The Clarets climbed above Wimbledon -- their opponents next Tuesday night -- back into tenth place and are now six points behind Preston, who occupy the final play-off spot.

Reaching the top six would still take a monumental effort from the Clarets but Ternent insisted: "We have seven games left and we'll do our best in all of them. We'll certainly have a say on what happens, like last night.

"We have to go to Wimbledon, who are pushing like ourselves to get towards that top six and then we have Birmingham and Watford and West Brom.

"We've also got to go to Sheffield and there are a lot of teams who have to come here who have ambitions to get in the top six.

"But I'm absolutely delighted with the players. At the risk of boring folks, 58 points is no mean feat with seven games to play."