Steven Caldwell's confidence that promotion is a realistic aim for Burnley this season was enhanced by the performance against Birmingham on Saturday.

“I feel we're one of the best teams in the league and when we're on song, like Saturday, and we're 100 per cent committed and play at the tempo and pace that we know we're capable of we can beat anybody,” the Clarets captain said.

“We've proved it in our recent run and we can't afford to rest on our laurels.

"We need to keep pushing on and keep winning games because it's such a difficult league and there's a lot of quality sides in it this year.”

However, Caldwell highlighted a key area for improvement to make a promotion push a more realistic target.

“I think the quality of the league's improved in the last few years, and certainly against Birmingham and Reading it's a Premiership-esque game because they have the quality that if you give them the chances they're going to punish them," he said.

“I think these two games have shown the level of concentration and quality needed to be way up the top of this Championship.

"Performance-wise we've competed with both teams, we've got the ball down and looked as comfortable as them, but certainly against Reading they were more clinical than us.

“They've got players worth a lot of money. Doyle's valued at £7million.

"Birmingham have Jerome, McFadden, O'Connor and Phillips and Marcus Bent, who can't even get on the bench at the minute - that tells you how strong they are and that's what we're aspiring to.

“We feel we've got the players to do it but our level of concentration and confidence and belief in ourselves has to be a little bit better.”