JACK Cork has called on Burnley to make sure they don’t waste the hard work of last season by suffering a shock European exit at the hands of Aberdeen.

The Clarets begin their Europa League campaign a week today with a second qualifying round first leg tie with the Dons at Pittodrie.

Burnley could hardly have wished for a tougher draw than facing the Scottish Premiership runners-up in a Battle of Britain clash that will add an extra dimension to the game.

Sean Dyche’s side booked a return to Europe for the first time since the 1966/67 season thanks to a seventh place finish in the Premier League last term, but Cork is aware that to make the most of that achievement the Clarets have to make it past Aberdeen.

“It’s probably the toughest team we could have got to be honest, hopefully we play like we can do and we get a result, because everyone really wants to do well in that competition, it will be a shame to waste what we strived so hard for last season,” the 29-year-old said.

“We’d hate to do that, everyone worked so hard last year, everyone was behind us, it’s such a big thing for the fans and for the club and the town, it would be such a shame if we did go out in the first couple of rounds.

“But we shouldn’t really think about that, we should think about trying to go there, get a result and get the win.”

Aberdeen are a week ahead of Burnley in terms of pre-season fitness, but they haven’t enjoyed a smooth summer, with a friendly against Inverness postponed due to concerns over the fitness of some of the Dons first team players, while Sunday’s game against Cove Rangers was abandoned just before the hour mark due to a serious injury to a Cove player.

The Clarets will have been back in pre-season training for just over three weeks they walk out at Pittodrie, and Cork added: “It’s going to be a tough one, we’ll have a few pre-season games but pre-season games are nothing like competitive games. It’s going to be a really competitive game quite early on for us, hopefully we can deal with it.”

Burnley and Aberdeen will find out their potential third qualifying round opponents when the draw takes place at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, on Monday afternoon.

Success for Burnley in any third round qualifying tie would still leave them needing to get through a play-off clash to reach the group stage, but that is the target for Cork.

“That would be ideal, but we’ve got two qualifiers and then the play-off round so we’ve got six games before we can even think about the group stage,” he said.

“That’s a lot of games we need to get results in. But we’d love to do that and love to get through to the group stage, that would be unbelievable.”

The Europa League might not always have enjoyed the best of reputations in England, but there is no thought of taking it lightly around Turf Moor.

“You hear bad things about it, but for a club like us to get the chance to play in Europe against some of the biggest teams is brilliant,” Cork added.

“You look at Southampton, they played Inter Milan, Arsenal last year had AC Milan, if you can get those teams and play in those games then it’s unbelievable.

“There’s some huge teams in there, hopefully we can get a good run and find ourselves on one of those nights.”