CENTRE back Jason Shackell hopes Burnley have returned to their defensive best as they look to build on a clean sheet against Hull City in their next set of crucial fixtures.

The Clarets conceded only four times in their opening five Premier League matches – including three consecutive clean sheets – but then shipped 15 goals in their next five games.

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Shackell helped Burnley secure a shut-out in their 1-0 victory at home to Hull in their last match 11 days ago though, and he is now targeting more clean sheets as the Clarets prepare to travel to Stoke on Saturday before home matches against Aston Villa and Newcastle.

“We were really happy with the clean sheet against Hull,” Shackell said.

“We’d conceded quite a few goals in the last few games and it’s been quite frustrating, so it’s something that we definitely wanted to get back to.

“It was nice to get as clean sheet, we’ve had four or five this season so hopefully we can get a couple more.

“On the whole in most games we don’t feel like we’ve defended badly.

“We’re giving away a handful of chances and in this league people punish you when they do get chances.

“I’m sure we could defend a lot worse than we have done at times this season and we’ll keep a clean sheet.

“We believe in what we’re doing.”

Shackell was named as the 15th best defender in Europe so far this season last week, in a statistical analysis conducted by an online fantasy football game using data from Opta.

Last season’s top scorer Danny Ings was the man who received the most media attention in the build-up to the new campaign.

The striker has missed a chunk of the season with a hamstring injury and has so far notched only one goal in the Premier Leaguue.

But the 22-year-old scored twice for the England under 21 team at Turf Moor last week and Shackell thinks Ings is getting back to his best form.

"He's a fantastic player and you saw last season the amount of goals he scored,” said the Burnley skipper.

“He seems to be getting back to where he was at last year. He's working hard, he's incredibly sharp.

“When he's on his game, I know from playing against him day in day out in training that he's a tough guy to mark.

"Hopefully his good form can continue, and he can grow and get us a few more goals.

"He's not far away at all. I'm sure the goals are going to come and if he keeps playing like he has been and starts scoring, that's going to help us get more positive results."

Ings, Michael Keane and Nathaniel Chalobah all featured again for the England under 21s in their 3-2 friendly loss in France on Monday night.

Chalobah had battled a knock in the build-up to the game and was forced off after only 33 minutes in Brest.

It is understood that he picked up a knock to the ankle but that his withdrawal was a precaution.