Clarets midfielder James O'Connor has described today's game at Cardiff as a "massive" one for the club.

Burnley are one of a cluster of clubs just outside the top six with a single point covering the five places just outside the play-off zone.

And O'Connor is hoping the Clarets can get on another winning streak starting with Cardiff today.

He said: "The league's very tight but Cardiff will have aspirations of getting into the play-offs so it's a massive game for us but hopefully we can go there and get a good result.

"I suppose you could argue that this is a six-pointer but the league is so tight. There's a point separating twelfth right up to seventh.

"It's very tight to call but over the next 18 games we'll be looking to put a run together.

We'll be aiming to try and get in there and hopefully that starts on Saturday."

O'Connor admitted he was sad to be out of the Cup after defeat against Derby on Saturday and didn't go along with the argument that being knocked out could be a blessing in disguise.

"They're excuses when you get knocked out of the FA Cup," he added. "It would have been nice to have a cup run but it's not to be. We have to concentrate on the league now and hopefully try and get into the play-offs

"We're pleased with how the season's gone but we were all very disappointed about the Sheffield Wednesday game. In the FA Cup game we definitely felt we'd done enough to get a draw but now we have to pick ourselves up and concentrate on the league.

"At the start of the season we actually felt we were playing well, we just weren't getting the rub of the green and getting the points.

"It looked pretty bad because we were bottom of the league at one point. But we kept believing in ourselves and believing in the way we were playing and we felt it was only a matter of time before the results would come."

"That was the case on Saturday against Derby but I think if you analyse the game they had three or four shots and scored two goals."