FIT-AGAIN full-back Lee Briscoe aims to be an ever-present during the Clarets' run-in in an effort to salvage something from a frustrating season.

Briscoe's campaign has been blighted by knee and hamstring injuries following an impressive start to his Turf Moor career.

The summer signing finally ended three months out of the starting line-up at Stockport County on Tuesday night.

And having felt no reaction to his first full run-out since gashing a knee against Norwich City at the end of November, the former Sheffield Wednesday defender is hoping to avoid any further setbacks and play as full a part as possible in the final quarter of Burnley's season.

He said: "If selected that's the target. That would be great now. We've got 12 games left so it would be nice if I could play in them all and finish the season off properly and put a bit of a contribution in.

"It was great to be back and I really enjoyed it. I was a bit stiff afterwards and I felt it in the last half-an-hour but I was really pleased to get 90 minutes under my belt.

"The gaffer just told me to let him know if I was really struggling but I felt good enough to carry on so there was really no need to come off." Burnley went fourth in the table the night Briscoe picked up his initial injury and while their subsequent slip wasn't solely down to his absence, the former England under-21 international has been badly missed on the Clarets' left flank.

"I was just settling in and feeling really good and then something like this always happens in football," added Briscoe, who admitted that his eagerness to get back into action had exacerbated a hamstring injury he sustained in an attempted comeback in the New Year.

"It's been a terrible time. There was nothing I could really do about the knee but then when the hamstring problems flared up it was probably a little bit self-inflicted," he added.

"I was so desperate to play I maybe rushed a little bit but there's no footballer in the world who's never done that, you are so desperate to get back out there."

Briscoe's immediate target is to start again at Watford next Tuesday night but he also has his mind on next season and a more major role in a concerted promotion push.

He said: "I just want to play again and get in as many games as I can. Then when the last one's in I'll look to next year.

"I think we can only improve. Without being complacent I think we've got enough points now.

"We'll be trying to get as many as we can to get as high as we can in the League but we know we'll be in this division again next year, at the worst, and it's up to us to build on that now and mount an even stronger challenge."