JAMES Tarkowski insists Burnley remain full of belief despite seeing the gap over the bottom three cut to five points.

The Clarets’ 2-0 Turf Moor reverse to Manchester United means it is just one win in 11 Premier League games for Burnley, and victories for Hull and Swansea on Saturday have once again increased the pressure on Sean Dyche’s side.

But Tarkowski, who came on at half-time on Sunday to replace the injured Ben Mee, said confidence is still high in the Clarets camp as they prepare for the final four games of the season.

“We’re a confident side; we believe in what we do and we believe in each other,” he said. “Teams have been picking points up around us but it’s up to us to do our job. If we look after that then we’ll be okay.”

United made it 23 league games unbeaten with the win, but Tarkowski said Burnley’s strong home form, they have 10 top flight victories at Turf Moor this season, can help them secure safety,

“We’re confident of taking on any team, especially here,” he added.

“Even with United and Spurs coming here we still fancied ourselves.

“Other teams have been here and we’ve taken points off them like Liverpool and Chelsea.

“We do fancy ourselves against most teams. We’re just disappointed about the defeat but we can’t get too down about it because we’ve got four big games to come.”

Burnley conceded two soft goals to hand United the initiative and it was one they were never going to cede.

“We needed to hold out a bit longer to make them a bit nervy, because they need the wins at the moment, but a couple of goals in the first half set us back,” Tarkowski said.

“We still stuck in there with a fairly decent performance but it wasn’t perfect because we obviously didn’t get any points at the end of the day.

“They are a team full of high quality players and they’re in really good form. We come in to games expecting to get something from them, whether it’s a point or a win, we’re always looking to do that. The goals in the first half just set us back.

“The first one was from a counter attack and it’s not often we get done like that.

“The second one is more of a fluke than any real quality so from our point of view we’d rather they put it in the top corner from 30 yards out where you can just hold your hands up. With the counter attack it’s a bit harder to take.”

Mee now faces a race against time to be fit for the crucial visit to Crystal Palace next weekend, but if Tarkowski does fill in he feels he will benefit from this outing, which was a first at the back for a while, having also been used a midfielder during the season.

“It was nice to be out there,” he said. “I felt a bit rusty but I guess that’s to be expected having not played a centre half for a while.

“I look forward to getting a few more minutes before the end of the season.”