CLARETS veteran Michael Duff believes he and his team-mates deserve more credit for the quality of their football this season.

While Burnley have been receiving praise, a lot of it has focused on the fitness levels of Sean Dyche’s squad, rather than the merits of the type of football they play.

That is something that 37-year-old Duff thinks doesn’t do justice to this side, who have proved they can play good football on numerous occasions this campaign.

Duff also believes that TV analysis of Burnley defeats tend to look at the shortcomings of the opposition, rather than what the Clarets have done well, although he insists the squad aren’t bothered about external views.

He said: “Even if we’re not playing well now you’re guaranteed hard work, organisation and we can play a little bit as well, which sometimes we’re not given as much credit for as we deserve.

“There was a lot of rubbish written early on. People said we wouldn’t beat Derby’s total, we were never going to score a goal and we were never going to win a game.

“The lads don’t take any notice of what’s written about us. We’re not expected to win any game this season.

“It’s similar to last year in that nobody really fancied us then, but there’s a togetherness in the squad that we can really achieve something.”

Duff appreciates the mentality of the squad is something that has helped them this season.

With 16 league games to go the Clarets are out of the drop zone by one point and one place.

“The mentality gets talked about a lot, the lads believe we are good enough to stay in the league,” said Duff.

“We’ve played everyone once and there’s nothing to fear. There might have been a bit of apprehension at the start of the season, you question yourselves, but we’ve constantly proved ourselves. Apart from the West Brom game we’ve competed in every other game.”

Duff made his 349th appearance for the Clarets in the FA Cup third round replay defeat at White Hart Lane, having been out for almost two months with a calf injury.

After sustaining the knock in the 2-1 win at Stoke City he was expected back within a couple of weeks, but suffered a setback in his recovery.

Having come through 90 minutes in north London Duff has now set his sights on fighting his way back into the team, with Michael Keane having featured in his absence.

“The injury was a pain to be honest,” he explained. “I broke down after about two weeks and that prolonged it.

“Then over Christmas it’s difficult to get games in because there’s so many first team games there isn’t a lot of reserve games and the lads aren’t doing a lot of training because they’re just recovering or preparing.

“It was frustrating, probably as frustrating as it’s ever been because it wasn’t like a six-week injury, it escalated from two weeks, we were pinpointing games where I thought I was going to be fit but they kept getting moved.

“I’m fit now though and I just have to try and get back in the team.”