TOM Heaton hopes Burnley’s first clean sheet of the season is the beginning of a new personal best. The keeper was responsible for 19 shut-outs in the promotion season, following that up with ten in the Premier League. This term he is hoping for 20.

Heaton said: “I do not have a particular clean-sheets target because there are so many factors involved. But they are our currency I guess and I suppose I would like 20 because we got 19 last time out. But the main thing is picking up wins and results.

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“I am hungry for success and I have got a lot of personal ambitions that I keep striving for.

“If you take your eye off the ball for a split second it can bite you. I have found a rhythm and routine that are working well.”

Heaton noted that Burnley are going through a transitional period in terms of readjusting to life back in the Championship. He said they are no longer underdogs but have new players settling and learning the Burnley way following the loss of key men Kieran Trippier, Danny Ings and Jason Shackell.

Heaton said: “It is different with how teams may perceive us. Things evolve in football pretty quickly and it is different from how it was a couple of years ago. We are a different outfit but the things that got us that success will not change.

“If we stick to that as well as continually looking to raise the bar then we will give ourselves a great chance of getting results and being at the right end of the table. The Championship is 100mph for the 90 minutes and you have to be ready for that. There is no bedding-in period in games. We will adjust to that and we will only get better.”

And Heaton, who was given the captain’s armband following Shackell’s return to Derby County, believes ticking off that first win, and clean sheet, will help to keep moving the club forward.

He said: “The mentality here helps massively. The culture is set by the manager and his staff, and the players then take that on and run with it. We have got a great group here who have done that and are continuing to do so.

“It has been a brilliant two years so far and we want to keep that ball rolling. In the short term moving the club back to the Premier League is the goal — and that is what we want to do.”