BURNLEY goalkeeper Tom Heaton believes the Clarets are back to their defensive best after shutting out two of the top six in their past three games.

The Clarets drew 0-0 with Spurs on Sunday having also kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win over champions Manchester City in their previous home game.

And Heaton insists Burnley have rediscovered their defensive resilience. 

“In terms of what I saw in front of me it was outstanding defensively,” Heaton said of Sunday.

“We kept a lot of very good individual players and a very good attacking team quiet.

“They’ve scored a lot of goals this season but it was a superb performance from back to front in terms of negating them and also impacting our game on them in an attacking sense.

“It’s great to be back to that framework, we went a long time without keeping a clean sheet, we kept one against City and another against Tottenham, so it builds very good foundations to play from.”

Sean Dyche’s side had gone 14 games without keeping a clean sheet prior to the win over City last month having kept three in their first four Premier League games.

During the run of games without a clean sheet the Clarets had problems defending corners, but Heaton believes they have now tightened up in areas they were getting hurt.

“We know what the quality is at this level and there was a spell where we found we were getting hurt on minor things,” he said. 

“We were doing one slight thing wrong in a game and getting hurt, but we’ve tightened those up.

“Sunday is a great example of that, it was a superb defensive display. We’re going to need it again next weekend.”

And Heaton admits that he and his team are relishing being in the thick of a top-flight survival fight, having been written off by many after going 10 games before registering their first league win.

The Clarets are locked in a thrilling six-way battle for survival over the final seven weeks of the season, with Sunderland, Hull, Aston Villa, QPR and Leicester also looking to escape dropping to the Championship.

“It’s brilliant, we’re relishing it,” the 28-year-old Heaton said of the relegation dogfight.

“It’s very tight and we’re looking forward to the last seven games and turning it in our favour.

“It probably mirrors the feeling at the start of the season where everybody wrote us off, but as the season has gone on, people have started to see what we are about and understand how we go about it, and it has been great changing people’s opinions.

“The general consensus is we are a very good team who makes it tough for anyone.”

Despite the pressure of a relegation battle in one of the biggest leagues in world football, Heaton insists the dressing room is relaxed about the situation, although he did face a nervy two hours in front of the TV on Saturday as he watched the results come in from games involving Burnley’s rivals at the foot of the table.

“The father in law had the TV on and I couldn’t get out of the room,” he said. 

“But we’re relaxed about it, it’s a fantastic situation to be in, we’re all relishing it and confident we can be a success in it.

“To have that confidence, it’s about sticking with the processes of what makes us successful, the hard work, endeavour and ability to go and win the games, which we are very close to.”