BEN Mee has hailed ‘fantastic’ Clarets goalkeeper Nick Pope after his rapid ascent continued with another clean sheet on Saturday.

Pope has kept five clean sheets in his first eight top flight appearances following the 1-0 win at Southampton at the weekend, and his displays for Burnley since replacing the injured Tom Heaton earned him a nomination for Premier League player of the month award for October.

Mee has been impressed with the 25-year-old’s composure since coming into the Clarets starting XI.

“He’s been fantastic, he made a few good saves again on Saturday. He’s been really solid, he looks assured and he looks confident. He’s so big he just comes and claims the ball really easy,” said Mee.

Pope made his Premier League debut as a substitute in the first half of the Clarets’ 1-0 win over Crystal Palace in early September.

He had played only 33 games in the Championship but the former Charlton man has barely put a glove wrong for Burnley and has grabbed his chance with both hands.

Mee added: “You never know how someone’s going to come in and do, he’s performed well in training but he’s looking confident and looking good.

“It’s a collective effort from the whole team. Nobody likes taking credit, we work well as a whole team and the whole squad is ready to come in and work hard for each other.

“The whole back four is looking solid, Popey has come in and done really well. The whole team worked so hard (on Saturday) and I thought we were fantastic.”

The win at St Mary’s kept the Clarets in seventh, four points clear of the chasing pack, and made it back-to-back 1-0 wins.

It was also a third away win of the season and skipper Mee felt it was a classic away day display.

“It’s not a bad away performance that, it’s the perfect one. It was a fantastic win,” he said.

“We were solid as always and we managed to nick that goal. I think Barnesy and Vokesy were fantastic when they came on and they changed the game for us.

“We’ve been solid and we’ve been grinding out games and winning games.

“We’ve played well and we’ve come away from home now and had a few tough away games and we’re growing and growing. We’re looking really solid.”