AMBITIOUS captain Steven Caldwell has labelled Burnley's remaining 14 league games as 'cup finals'.

The Clarets go into tomorrow's clash with play-off chasing rivals Plymouth Argyle just four points off the top six with a game in hand.

And central defender Caldwell has urged the push for promotion must begin in earnest now.

"Plymouth's a really crucial game," he stressed.

"We cannot let the next four or five slip by and think 'oh, there's 10 to go, let's push on'.

"It starts now, and everybody seems to be jostling to get there, people are getting edgy and it's the team that keeps their cool their best now that will achieve their goals.

"They're all cup finals from now on in."

He added: "I have a really good feeling. It's an exciting time, it's the real nitty-gritty part of the season. You almost just sort of crash through the first 30 games to get to this position, and you hope that through the first 30 games you're in a strong-ish position.

"Obviously we'd like to be stronger - that goes without saying - but we're all in the hunt to get in the promotion places and to possibly achieve automatic (promotion).

"So it's a real exciting time and this is where it really matters."

And the 27-year-old Scotland international has even set his sights higher than just the play-off positions.

"This season even the top teams are still very much catchable," he said.

"Usually by this point in previous seasons the top teams - maybe three, possibly four - have had that little gap where they know they're only going to drop into a play-off position.

"But realistically, if the leaders have a bad run they could drop out of the FROM BACK PAGE play-offs and they know that.

"I think it's important that everyone keeps winning and they stay in that position, but obviously that makes people edgy.

"What we have to do is remain calm, keep playing the style of football that we can and that we have this season, and obviously to be up and ready for every game.

"We played Plymouth a few weeks ago and beat them 1-0, but it was quite convincing on the day.

"We felt that hopefully we were pushing away from Plymouth, or any team that we had beaten. We've not been on a bad run ourselves but all of a sudden Plymouth are ahead of us because they've done so well.

"We're aware of that; we're aware of every team round about us. We don't write off any team or treat any team lightly, whether they're 24th or first, and Plymouth's going to be a tough game - especially away from home. I really feel it's going to be a battle for the early part of the game, and we have to stamp our authority on it and let our class come through."

And Caldwell, who won promotion to the top flight with Sunderland, as champions in 2005, believes Burnley's emphasis on attack will bode well during a run-in which pits them against six of the top ten teams.

"There have obviously been times where we've not scored a goal and probably not looked so great attacking, but as a whole I think from when I came last season to now, the attacking nature of our play looks far more potent," he said.

"We look like we can get goals against anybody.

"It's not personnel, it just seems to be the style that we're playing with, and we just seem to have that confidence and feel we can get goals against anybody, and in the main I think we have against some decent teams and good defences.

"It's pleasing to know we can score goals.

"We just have to get a balance right and get the shape right of the team, especially away from home.

"We are going forward, but we have a good, solid base to stop goals. If we can stop goals and score goals, we're going to have a real good chance."