FORMER Burnley midfielder Jack Cork is hopeful the Clarets can survive in the Premier League this season - despite helping to condemn them to an opening day defeat in his Swansea colours.

Cork, who made 57 appearances for Burnley across two loan spells, is now a regular with the South Wales side.

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But he still remembers his time at Turf Moor fondly, and he wants to see Sean Dyche’s side secure their Premier League safety this season.

“I like the club and the players and the fans,” said Cork, who admitted there had been plenty of change since his time at the club.

“It would be nice to see them stay up. It would be a big achievement and probably equal what they did last year.”

While Cork believes securing that second season in the top flight can be crucial for development, he doesn’t think it’s essential for the Clarets.

“Burnley are a sensible club,” he said.

“It’s important but it’s not everything. It’s a great club and a well-run club.

“Going down is a disappointment but for the club to come back up, promotion is just as good as staying up. But it’s hard to guarantee that if you go down to the Championship.

“They’ve done really well to get promoted and hopefully they stay up.”

Cork and Swansea took all three points from Turf Moor on Saturday thanks to Leroy Fer’s goal, but the 27-year-old was impressed with the performance of the home side and the threat of the front two.

“It was always going to be a tough game coming back here,” he said.

“The longer balls were hard to deal with, the physical threat of (Sam) Vokes and (Andre) Gray was always going to be tough, but the centre-halves stood up to their challenge and the goalkeeper made a couple of good saves and we could have maybe had a couple ourselves.

“It could have maybe ended up two or three each side. We ended up nicking it and getting a clean sheet.”

Cork felt the points were vital for the Swans, who were missing a couple of first-team regulars and saw captain Ashley Williams depart for Everton in the week before the game.

“We needed some points,” he said. “I think if we hadn’t got the points people might have looked at it differently and said a few things about missing certain players.

“It was a big win for us and we did well to get the points.”