MICHAEL Duff is determined to take an unexpected second opportunity in the top flight, having all but given up on ever playing in the Premier League again.

The 36-year-old was a late developer, and was still stacking shelves every Sunday in the Co-op until he made the Football League with Cheltenham in 1999.

He played over 330 games for the Robins and had to be patient for his chance with a club at a higher level, when he moved to Turf Moor at the start of the 2004/05 season.

The Northern Ireland international is the sole survivor from the Clarets’ last foray into the Premier League five years ago, and he admits he wasn’t expecting to ever be back.

“When you get to 36 and you’ve only had one year, of course you’re going to think it’s your one and only shot,” he said.

“That’s why last year was such a bonus for the club and me personally. It’s where everyone wants to work. It took a lot of hard work and determination to get where we are.

“My career path has been a little bit different to everyone else’s. When I was five, I wanted to play in the top flight, just like everyone else does. When I was 16 or 17 years old, the reality was to become a professional footballer because I was playing down the levels.

“That was the first goal. I got that at the age of 20. After that you want to progress to the next level and it took me to 26 to get to the Championship and I was 30 by the time I got to the Premier League.

“I’ve done most things a little bit slower. To get my second crack at 36, I’m just trying to take the opportunity.

“I think it’s made me appreciate what I’ve got a little bit more than some of the younger lads coming through now. They get given everything, which is not a bad thing but the top players now are multi-millionaires by the time they’re 20 and 21.

“It’s a different world comparing the way I came through to the top players now. It definitely helped mould the person and the player that I am.”

Duff might be relishing his second chance amongst the elite, but he admits that Burnley have to tighten up at the back.

After keeping three successive clean sheets against Manchester United, Crystal Palace and Sunderland, the Clarets have since shipped nine goals in three games to West Brom, Leicester and West Ham, and Duff, the senior member of the back four, knows that is not good enough.

“It’s something we’re aware off,” said Duff of conceding nine goals in three games, “we can’t be blaise and just think it’s one of those things, we’ve obviously not been doing something right otherwise those goals wouldn’t have gone in.

“We had kept three clean sheets so we know we need to be more clinical in both boxes, it’s something we have been working on, it’s not something we’ve been happy with the last three games, we’ve conceded too many goals for our liking.”

But despite still being without a first Premier League win eight games into the season, Duff said the players remain upbeat and has been impressed with the quality of training.

“We’re a work in progress,” he said, “there is still a lot of belief in the game, if you watch training you wouldn’t think we were a team that had gone eight games winless, because of the intensity and the enthusiasm of the lads, and it’s still new for nearly all of us, so a few off results isn’t going to dampen our enthusiasm.”

Other players with top flight experience may have arrived at the club, but Duff is still more than happy to pass on any pearls of wisdom he has picked up from a career that has included over 600 league games.

“We’ve got people who have come into the club now who have played a lot more games than I have in the Premier League,” he said, “people like Dean Marney, Steven Reid, Matty Taylor, Michael Kightly, David Jones, but as regards to experience I’ve been beaten a few times in my career and I’d like to think I know how to deal with it, and you can help the younger ones because sometimes they may get down on themselves and beat themselves up, but you just dust yourself down and go again.”