ASHLEY Westwood has praised the ‘phenomenal’ character among the Burnley squad after coming away from Southampton with three vital points.

The Clarets are up to 11th place in the Premier League table having climbed away from the relegation zone on the back of a four-game unbeaten run.

Just two points separate Wolves in seventh and Burnley in 11th and Sean Dyche’s side have a great chance to climb the table even further when they host struggling Bournemouth on Saturday.

While these are happy times at Turf Moor, prior to their impressive four game run - including wins over Leicester City and Manchester United - Burnley were tumbling down the table having lost seven of their previous nine Premier League outings.

But Westwood says the players never stopped believing. “Even when we were on a bad run we never get our heads down here,” he told BT Sport.

“The character in there is phenomenal coming off the back of three difficult games and the one today (Southampton) was massive for us and it puts us in a good position.”

The midfielder has played a key goal scoring role in Burnley’s revival, scoring the winner in the 2-1 win over Leicester City at Turf Moor last month before opening the scoring at St Mary’s - not that he knew much about it.

There was just one minute and 35 seconds on the clock when Westwood whipped in a near post corner that went all the way in to the Southampton net.

“I didn’t really know,” added Westwood.

“I thought Ben Mee tried to claim it but luckily for me it was already over the line and it was a massive win for us.”

After Westwood’s early strike, the Clarets were up against it when former Burnley striker Danny Ings levelled for the Saints in the 18th minute.

But some words of encouragement from Dyche put the Clarets on track to victory with Matej Vydra netting a fine winner.

“We said at half time, when we scored we sat off them a bit too much and the gaffer said we need to get more on the front foot,” said Westwood.

“The second half (performance) was what really won us the game.”