NICK Pope insists he’s ready to fill Tom Heaton’s gloves after making his Premier League debut off the bench in the victory over Crystal Palace.

The former Charlton man was called on when England goalkeeper Heaton suffered a suspected dislocated shoulder when falling awkwardly in the first half.

But Pope showed few signs of nerves, helping the Clarets to a first Premier League clean sheet of the season as they recorded a backs-to-the-wall 1-0 win over Palace.

And the 25-year-old is set for an extended run in the side, with Sean Dyche confirming Heaton is likely to be out for weeks rather than months after picking up his injury.

Asked if he was ready to deputise for Heaton, Pope said: “As a player you want to play, when I came to Burnley I wanted to play games, that’s your ambition as a player, that’s what you dream about, you don’t dream about sitting on the bench.”

Pope came on with around 10 minutes of the first half remaining and said coming off the bench as a goalkeeper was one of the toughest tasks in football.

“As a goalkeeper you try and be ready as much as you can. It’s a rare occasion but you get yourself warm and prepare for the possibility of coming on,” he said.

“It’s probably the hardest thing to be a goalkeeper coming off the bench, so to come on, keep a clean sheet and get a win, we’re over the moon with that.”

Pope’s goal was under siege for much of the second half at Turf Moor, but his defenders soaked up plenty of pressure and the former Ipswich youngster had words of praise for those in front of him after Burnley moved up to seventh in the Premier League.

“They were all awesome,” he said of the back four. “The lads in front of them worked really hard as a unit as well. We work hard on our shape as a team for reasons like this, we were solid, there were last ditch tackles and blocks.

“You need that resilience in the Premier League. You’re going to come under pressure, there’s some top teams in this league and some top players, you’ve got to be ready to come under pressure and stick it out at times and we were excellent at that.”

The clean sheet continued Pope’s run of not conceding a goal during 90 minutes at the start of his Clarets career.

In six outings for the club now since the start of last season he has only conceded once, to Accrington Stanley’s Matty Pearson in the 120th minute of a League Cup tie last August.

“That’s still going, fingers crossed it still is this time next week,” Pope said. “It’s not something you set out to do, it just falls upon you. It’s game by game for me now, don’t look too far ahead, because the game can bite you quickly.”

Pope is likely to start at Anfield against Liverpool next week after Dyche said Heaton was looking at a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

“It’s a suspected dislocated shoulder, so we’ll have to wait and see,” the Clarets chief said.

“It’s obviously the downside of the day, he’s been fantastic for us, and if it is that, it’s not weeks, it’s more like months.

“I’m not a medic, but I don’t imagine it’s a few weeks, that’s for sure.

“It’s on of those things, we’ll take care of Tom, and it allows an opportunity for the next one in.”