CLARETS captain Tom Heaton insists Burnley are ‘desperate’ to avoid becoming the seventh team not to win an away game in a Premier League season.

But the 31-year-old said focus on correcting that away record would be put on the back burner this week as Burnley prepare for a clash with Manchester United at Turf Moor on Sunday.

It is at home that the Clarets have been at their best this season, with their 10 league wins the bedrock of a survival bid that sees them eight points clear of the bottom three with just five games to go.

However, the 3-1 defeat at Everton on Saturday means Burnley are now winless in 17 league away games this season, picking up just four draws.

They have games at Crystal Palace and Bournemouth to come to avoid following Leeds, Coventry, Wolves, Norwich, Derby and Hull into the record books.

“We’re not looking at it like that,” Heaton said. “Of course you don’t want that sort of accolade following you around but we’ll focus on what’s right in front of us.

“The next one is a home game against United on Sunday and we’ll prepare for that.

“I think it’s been building. We’ve had some decent performances away but that win is still elusive.

“(The performance at Everton) is certainly up there, certainly one of the better ones. We moved the ball well, mixed it well and made it uncomfortable for them.

“It was just a shame that we couldn’t capitalise on that. We looked dangerous, we kept them relatively quiet, although they have a formidable strike force.

“There are positives to be taken but overall we’re desperate for that first win.”

Burnley created plenty of chances at Goodison against an Everton team who had won seven league games in a row in front of their own fans.

And Heaton believes an ethos of trying to get on the front foot is a positive for Burnley despite it being yet to yield three points.

“We had a go,” he said. “We went on the front foot, something we always try to do, and I thought that stood us in good stead in the game. We had a few chances in the first half and we could’ve gone in to the break up.

“We rallied well, Vokesy puts the penalty away nicely, but their second has taken two deflections on its way in.

“At that point it opened the game up a bit for them because we’re trying to get back in it. It’s tough but in general it was mostly a good performance. I feel like we’ve been saying that a lot, we’ve been doing everything we can to turn those performances in to results.

“Like the manager says, it’s part of our growth. We’re going to these places and putting performances in. I’ve said it a lot, I don’t want to keep sounding like a broken record, but we are close to getting that result.

“It was always going to be a tough game, we’ve given a good account of ourselves, but it’s frustrating not to get a result. We’ll move on to the next weekend now.”