BURNLEY midfielder Chris McCann has backed manager Owen Coyle to lead a successful Championship charge next season.

Although the current term is at risk of petering out, with back-to-back defeats pushing the Clarets down to 13th in the table, McCann is confident they will learn from their mistakes and come back fighting.

The 20-year-old revealed how Coyle's ambition has been transferred to the rest of the squad since he took charge in November, and believes they will benefit from a full pre-season together for in preparation for a campaign he believes will be hotly contested.

"It's getting tougher and tougher every year, you can't really anticipate what's going to happen. But one thing's for sure is this club's going forward," said McCann.

"The manager's going to add to the team we have in the summer; it's only going to get stronger, we've confidence in the team that we can do better than what we're doing at the moment. We know we're capable of being in the top six and getting promotion.

"The manager's very ambitious. He's very enthusiastic every day in training. Training's really sharp and since he's come in and the confidence has grown in the team and he's added that to our game as we've taken it into our performances.

"He's given everyone a big lift around the club.

"When he came in, we had three great away wins straight away. Weve had a couple of poor results recently but I think we can push on more than what we have been doing and hopefully take it into next season and do well.

"It's a very positive time for the club with the new stadium. There's a great bunch of lads and the manager will hopefully add to it and push us on next season. Who know's where we'll be then.

"I think it will be good to get a pre-season with him; he'll bond the players a lot more and bring a togetherness to the team.

"We're a tight bunch of lads now. Everyone's ambitious, there's great competition for places with people coming back from injury and we all just want to drive forward and play at the top, so hopefully we'll keep getting the results we need. If we cut the silly errors out I don't think we'll have any problems.

"You can only look at your mistakes and try to eradicate them from your game, and hopefully that will make us all better players."

McCann has already noticed his own, individual improvements under Coyle's tutelage.

"He''s always wanting to help you and encourage you, and that's a great thing to have in a manager," he said.

"He's given me the confidence to drive forward more and improved my game.

"He talks to you about things you can do better or things you've done well and he'll encourage you to do the good things better.

"I've been driving forward a lot more, getting into the box a lot more and scoring more goals, and hopefully I can just keep adding to my game."

The Dubliner added that there are positive influences within the squad also.

"Andy Cole's a big lift around the club; day in, day out he's helping the younger players like me and Kyle (Lafferty)," McCann explained.

"Every day he's telling us things we could do better and things that we do well.

"After the game (on Saturday) and talked to me about things I could have done better, like getting into better positions.

"It's good to have him around. He's an experienced head so it's good to listen and learn from him."