JACK Cork hailed a 'really impressive' first Premier League outing of the season for Burnley.

The Clarets were left frustrated in failing to make the most of their dominance against Southampton and in the end they had to settle for a stalemate at St Mary's.

But during the first half the early stages of the second half Burnley had been comfortably the better team as they saw chances come and go, while Cork had a goal harshly ruled out for offside.

Burnley played with style as well as substance in the first half, enjoying 60 per cent of the possession.

"It was a really good first half, the second half was a bit tougher and we had to dig in, but it was a really impressive first 55 minutes," Cork said.

"We got on the ball, created chances and we were unlucky not to score. In the end we had to see it through as a 0-0.

"We all enjoyed our football in the first half and it was a good game to play in. They made a few changes, made it difficult, changed their shape, but they were always going to have a bit of a good go after the first hour. When you look at it a draw is probably a fair result in the end.

"We just need to score goals and as long as we're keeping clean sheets and adding goals we'll be alright."

The Clarets certainly showed no signs of the effects of their demanding week.

They were Istanbul on Thursday night for the first leg of their Europa League third qualifying round tie before arriving back in Manchester in the early hours of Friday morning.

Burnley then flew down to Southampton on Saturday before Sunday's Premier League opener, but Cork felt the 'match sharpness' they had built up in three Europa League ties had benefited them.

"The fact that we're four games in to the season has maybe given us that bit of experience and match sharpness that they didn't have so we were unfortunate not to win it really," he said.

And the Clarets remain unbeaten in four competitive games now and Cork is pelased to see they remain hard to beat.

"That was one of our biggest traits last year," he added.

"We were hard to break down and hard to score against. Hopefully we'll have that again. The lads throw themselves at everything, make blocks and that's one of our biggest attributes."