ASHLEY Barnes believes Burnley will have to up the ante even more than they did against Liverpool if they are to end their winless run against former club Brighton.

The Seagulls are up to 10th in the Premier League table thanks to back-to-back wins over Huddersfield and Crystal Palace, despite playing with 10 men for more than an hour against Roy Hodgson’s side.

The Clarets were dismal in defeat at Palace last Saturday, but raised the bar for the visit of Liverpool in midweek and took the lead before the Reds hit back.

But Barnes, who returned to the starting line-up on Wednesday, says they must go above and beyond those levels if they are to win their first game in nine.

“We’ve been through a rough time and we need to get back to picking up points. Unfortunately we couldn’t do that (against Liverpool) but we’ve got another massive game at the weekend. We need to dust ourselves down and go again,” said the striker.

“It’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure, and we’re going to have to work even harder. As long as we do that then I’m sure we can pick up the three points.

“We take a lot from (from Wednesday) because it’s Liverpool at the end of the day and they’re a quality side. The players that they have in their squad are a different class so we’ve done so well.

“From our point of view the goals were a little bit sloppy. But we’ve gone back to our old selves and we had to be ugly. Teams don’t like coming here. We’ve got the 12th man with the fans and once you put in tackles the fans get behind you. It gives you a push in the right direction.”

Burnley slipped into the bottom three following the Palace defeat last weekend but could climb out of it if they can return to winning ways.

Barnes, who left Brighton for Burnley almost five years ago, added: “It’ll be a special game for myself. We need to come away with the three points. That’s our aim.

“It’s huge and these are the teams, outside the top six, that you need to do well against. These are the ones we need to win, these are the teams we need to be picking points up against.

“They’re very good and they’ll be full of confidence but we’ve got to knock them off their stride.

“That first win would be huge and there’d be relief for everyone around the club. Our main aim this year is to stay in the Premier League.”