FEW would be surprised if Burnley felt they had unfinished business with Tottenham Hotspur.

Having staged one of the best ever comebacks to recover a three-goal deficit in January’s Carling Cup semi-final second leg, the Clarets famously had Wembley snatched away from them in the 118th and 120th minutes.

After leaving White Hart Lane 4-1 down from the first leg, Robbie Blake, Chris McCann and Jay Rodriguez had worked wonders to force extra time.

Burnley had done the impossible. Almost.

Roman Pavlyuchenko and Jermain Defoe’s late goals were a dagger through their heart.

But instead of collapsing, the Clarets were inspired, and Wembley Way opened up again.

“I think in many ways, in hindsight, with the way the season panned out that was maybe the best thing that could have happened to us,” said Wade Elliott, who paved the way for a Spurs re-match with his promotion-winning goal.

“I think a lot of the lads have gone on record and said that Pavlyuchenko scoring in the manner and time that he did and us missing out maybe gave us the impetus to go and make amends in the league.

“I don't think many of us in the dressing room had been a minute or two away from a major Wembley final. You can't say it was crushing because I think we internalised the disappointment and tried to use it in a positive way. But in that moment it was quite a quiet, dour dressing room.”

The lowest point of his career?

“Of course it was. Obviously we didn't know that we'd be going back to Wembley at the end of the season and we didn’t know we’d have the Premier League ahead of us, so I think for many of us, if we’d have got there that would have been the pinnacle of our career at that time,” said the 30-year-old.

“To have it so close and to have turned it around from the first leg in the manner that we did ... when you get back in the dressing room you ask yourself all sorts of questions: ‘Should we have done this, should we have done that'.

“For a day or two I think we were all very low, but you know that you’ve still got half a chance in the league so you have to dust yourself down and get yourself going again.

“Fortunately the staff were brilliant with that. We’ve got a good group of lads who recognised that and didn’t dwell on it too much.

“We had a massive pay-off at the end of the season, so maybe we've got something to thank Spurs for. I’m not sure.”

A latecomer to professional football, nevermind the Premier League, Elliott is brimming with his first taste of the top flight.

“I’ve enjoyed it. There’s nothing better than playing in front of full houses every week and it’s been great for me; I’ve found myself up against Giggs and Cahill, Lampard and Gerrard so far. It’s been good,” said the former Bashley and Bournemouth winger, who scored the only goal against Everton last month.

“Obviously you’ve got to learn on the job. You know if you switch off for a second or two then they’re gone; they’re off the back of you in the box and invariably they’re going to finish any chances they get.

“It's a learning curve but you’ve got to learn your lessons sharply because there are points at stake.

“We know how valuable every point’s going to be. We know collectively we have to keep pushing ourselves because any point that we get or even any goal, you don't know how valuable it might be come the end of the season.

“As cliched as it is, every game is a cup final, and I guess it’s never too early in the season to have that attitude about your campaign.”

Although Burnley have yet to drop a point at home after three games, their first goal and point away from Turf Moor eludes them, leading manager Owen Coyle to call for them to take some of the form that has inspired wins against Manchester United, Everton and Sunderland on their travels.

“It would be nice,” said Elliott. “We know we’re capable of going to places and getting results, we’ve shown that in the past.

“Because we’ve were beaten at Liverpool and Chelsea we’re not going to think we can't get results away from home. We know how difficult it is to go to those places.

“We looked at the Liverpool game and saw what could improve on and what we did well that we could continue and we'll do the same again.

“I don't think that because we've had a couple of bad results away from home we're going to radically alter the way we go about things. We'll look at the Sunderland game in the same manner and say 'we did this well' and go and see if we can do the same thing at Tottenham.

“We've got first-hand experience of how good Spurs are. We know it doesn't get any easier. It's another tough task but we said all along that's what we're looking forward to. We want to go to the best grounds and play against the best players and test ourselves.

“Possibly our last two away games - not so much the result but, speaking from the lads' point of view, we've been disappointed with the performance as much as anything.

“We know you've got to be at your very best to get anything from Chelsea or Liverpool but we felt that we might have given them a better game than we did.

“It would be nice to roll onto another top club and see how we get on there.”