IT was a phrase first coined by British Cycling supremo Dave Brailsford, and it seemed to work pretty well for him.

Over the last few weeks the mantra ‘marginal gains’ has been mentioned around Turf Moor, with in-form striker Danny Ings twice using those words when speaking to the media in the last seven days.

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And it is something that Clarets boss Sean Dyche is happy to buy into the idea too as they try to defy the odds and survive.

Working with the smallest budget in the top flight presents obvious problems for Burnley, so Dyche believes it is important they find other areas in which they can try to steal a march on their more resource-heavy rivals.

“When I first got here I told them everything we do we do for a reason, be it a day off or a meeting at a certain timeif it’s a day off it’s done for a reason, if it’s a meeting at a certain time it’s done for a reason,” he said. “We just look for all the things that can help enhance performance and develop them.”

In British Cycling the phrase meant increasing a number of areas by one or two per cent, to add up to a more substantial improvement across the board. It worked for Brailsford as The sport reached new heights in Britain, with Olympic gold medals and Tour de France successes.

Over recent weeks there have been signs of a positive effect for Burnley as well, with successive league wins secured over Hull and Stoke City to move them off the bottom of the table.

“You’ve to maximise the group. Maximise them as individuals and maximise them as a collective,” Dyche said of trying to improve his players. “We certainly look to do that, myself and the staff, but the players do that as well. We encourage feedback, we want to speak to them, we want them to have open dialogue with us, and they have for a while now so they’re used to it.

“If there are things they think we can change or they think we can alter, not so much tactical planning - that’s my decision - but if there are things from the support system, injury prevention, science, diet, things like that, they are more than welcome to come to us and we add all those bits in and it’s all designed to maximise potential.”

One area that Burnley regularly impress in is fitness, and statistics revealed this week showed that the 8.29 miles George Boyd ran at the Britannia Stadium was the furthest distance covered by a player in the Premier League so far this season.

Boyd has now got three such entries in the top nine slots in terms of distance covered this term, with 8.07 miles against Hull and 7.95 miles against West Ham. But Dyche insists the work they are doing is not that revolutionary.

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” said the Burnley manager.

“It’s well documented how fit the team are, but we only train them, we only balance workload and rest and strength and conditioning and diet and all the things that other teams do, we just do our version of it and it’s been productive for us.

“The players are very fit, they look after themselves well away from here, they know we trust them with that and we find that balance of work, rest and mental motivation in order to deliver physically.

“The idea is you add in the tactical understanding but still give them the freedom to play as an individual. Now we’ve gone up a level so we have to find the marginal gains to keep the group learning and improving.”