THE togetherness that helped Burnley win promotion can inspire them to a first Premier League win of the season.

That is the view of Clarets goalkeeper Tom Heaton ahead of Sunday’s Turf Moor encounter with Everton.

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Sean Dyche’s second-from-bottom side will go into the Sky Sports televised clash having been unable to win any of their opening eight matches since returning to the top flight.

But Heaton insists that the mood among the players has not been damaged and that, like last season, team spirit remains strong.

He admits, however, that scoring the first goal against Roberto Martinez’s men, who are in Europa League action in France against Lille tonight, could be crucial.

“The mood is still very good and I think you can see that,” said Heaton, who could not prevent Burnley from going down 3-1 at home to West Ham United on Saturday.

“I’ve played in teams where you go 2-0 down and you get a bit deflated.

“But on Saturday, we scored, we got back in it, the crowd got behind us and we got going again, which was great.

“We just need to make sure we keep adding that bit of quality at the right time and hopefully it will turn.

“It’s vital we stick together. There’s no other recipe.

“We’ve been very close in games and there’s an awful lot of good stuff to take from it.

“We just need to get our heads down, keeping putting the work in and it will definitely come.”

The Clarets were the dominant team before the break on Saturday.

But their failure to take the lead in a match for the second time this season – the only other time they have broken the deadlock was in their opening game defeat to Chelsea – cost them dearly as the high-flying Hammers scored three times in a clinical second-half performance.

“It’s probably a big factor,” said Heaton on getting the first goal.

“If we can do that then the game opens up a bit for us because they have to come out then.

“That’s almost a little bit what happened with West Ham.

“They scored, we came out and then there are probably a few more gaps for them to go and score another one.

“It might work in our favour if we score first.

“We created an awful lot of chances on Saturday and we were very close to taking the lead.

“On a different day we would have got the right result.

“We’ve got to keep believing in each other, keep believing we’re doing the right things, and I think if we take that into the weekend we’re going to give ourselves another great chance.”