SAM Vokes admits ‘it’s hard to see’ how Burnley haven’t won away from home this season but the Clarets striker is confident there is still time to find that first win.

Defeat at Everton on Saturday made it 17 Premier League away games without success for Sean Dyche’s side.

But the Goodison Park display was possibly their best of the season so far on the road, despite a 3-1 defeat, with Vokes scoring on his return to the side in place of Andre Gray.

The Clarets now have trips to Crystal Palace and Bournemouth to try and avoid becoming the seventh team in the Premier League era to go through an entire season without an away win.

“It’s a big stigma of ours this year and people mention it all the time,” Vokes said of an away return that has yielded just four draws.

“But for us, with performances like Saturday, it’s hard to see how we haven’t got that result away from home.

“We’ve still got some games to go and hopefully it will come.”

Despite a focus on a meagre away return Burnley have won 10 times at Turf Moor this season and they remain eight points clear of the bottom three with just five games to go.

“The bigger picture is massive for us,” said Vokes. “Survival is the key thing. To get there we’re going to need some more points away from home.

“It’s (away win) something that hasn’t come so far but it’s something we want to get ticked off.”

Vokes was twice denied in the first half by Joel Robles before converting a second half penalty, and the Clarets created plenty of chances at Goodison.

They were less than 20 minutes from ending Everton’s run of seven successive home league wins before Ross Barkley’s shot deflected off Michael Keane and Ben Mee into the back of the net.

Although it was a cruel blow for the Clarets, Vokes felt it was his side’s best away performance of the season.

“Definitely,” the 27-year-old said. “It was a game we thought we were in at half-time and we were a bit gutted we didn’t take our chances in the first half because we played really well.

“The gaffer mentioned at half-time to be aware of a reaction and you saw that early on from Everton.

“We knew it was going to be a tough task coming here but performance wise we were very strong.”

Vokes returned in place of Gray for Burnley and the Wales international revealed the plan was to get the ball forward quickly to trouble the hosts.

“We knew we could create chances against them,” he said. “The gaffer changed it a bit up front and it was all about getting the ball up to us early and playing off that.

“We stuck to the game plan but gave a couple of goals away.

“I got taken down for the penalty. It was nice to get back on level terms but we couldn’t see it out. I wanted to take it. It was nice to get the goal.

“It was more about the performance, it was unfortunate we couldn’t see the game out when we got back level.”