MICHAEL Duff hopes Burnley’s new-found confidence can strike fear into their relegation rivals.

The central defender described a first away win of the season – a 4-1 rout at Hull City – as “a monkey off our backs”.

Although ending a run of nine games without a win moved the Clarets above the Tigers in the table on goal difference, it wasn’t enough for them to climb out of the bottom three.

West Ham’s win at home to Sunderland kept them four points adrift of safety.

But the pressure ceases to abate for the Hammers and 17th-placed Wigan, while neither Bolton Wanderers, who play Chelsea tonight, or even Wolves are out of the woods yet.

And Duff has urged Burnley to use their rivals’ perilous positions as an incentive to maintain their fight for survival.

“It’s been a long time since we won a game, and hopefully it will boost confidence and drag a few more teams in above us,” he said.

“Maybe they’ll look over their shoulder a little bit more, but we just need to keep turning in performances, and, ultimately, picking up wins.

“We’re at the stage of the season where we need results, it doesn’t matter where we win now though, we just need points.

“Hopefully we can get a couple more wins and see where it takes us.”

After conceding three goals in the first seven minutes against Manchester City the previous weekend, there was a sense of deja-vu when the Clarets went behind with just over two minutes on the clock to a Kevin Kilbane header.

But Duff admitted Martin Paterson’s equaliser 10 minutes before the break was the catalyst for more in the second half.

“It was a very positive dressing room at half-time, and it was a funny feeling, because we almost knew we were going to go on and get that result,” he said.

“Pato took his goal very well, and it was important that we got in at 1-1. "We were still in the game and knew we had more to offer, and in the second half we were much the better team.”

On a personal note Duff was disappointed to miss a golden opportunity at 1-1, and even winning the first penalty failed to fully make amends.

“I missed an absolute sitter, and I was gutted at the time because I thought it could have been a key moment,” he said.

“I put a terrible cross in just before the chance. (Leon) Cort got across and just missed the second cross, but I managed to get a good touch, and I saw a big patch of red fog in front of me!”

But the Northern Ireland international knows the points are more important.

“I’m still disappointed to miss, because it was an opportunity to say I’ve scored a Premier League goal, but we got the win, and that’s what matters,” said Duff, who still played his part in a comprehensive victory by winning the first of two penalties.

“Once Grezza (Graham Alexander) gets a penalty, you know you can virtually walk back to your starting spot because he’s going to score.

“Again, with the second penalty, it’s a great feeling almost knowing he’s going to score.

“They were two great penalties, and obviously Wade (Elliott) has capped off a very good day, after what looked potentially like being a bad one at the start.

“We grew into the game after a bad start, we turned them around a little bit, battled hard, and then we could start playing football.”

Duff and his central defensive partner, Cort, suffered head injuries after colliding with each other going for a first-half header.

The 30-year-old was bloodied and bandaged up before having stitches, but modestly admitted: “It looked worse than it actually was, it didn’t actually hurt!

“When you get a bang on your head, it’s sore, but it must have been the way Leon almost skimmed me.

“I think he actually came off worse, mine looks worse, but he’s got a big egg on the side of his head.”

He added that a week’s worth of criticism following their 6-1 demolition by Manchester City was more painful.

“It was a long, hard week, having to read things and watch the game again,” he said.

“The main thing that got us down was the performance and the result.

“Sometimes in this league, if you play badly and the other team plays well...you get results like that in this league, Aston Villa got beat 7-1 and they are trying to get in the top four.

“But I don’t think it was the result, it was more the performance and the way we gave in a little bit, which was the disappointing thing.

“We talked a lot about it during the week, but ultimately you have to start doing it on the pitch, and we did that.

“We let a lot of people down, including ourselves, so we couldn’t afford to roll over and die, we needed to pull our sleeves up and have a go.

“Ultimately, if it’s not enough, it’s not enough, but we need to go down fighting if we’re going to go down, and we need to turn in more performances like at Hull.

“If we do, we’ve got a right good chance.”