Matchwinner James Tarkowski says he is feeling in peak condition after putting an injury-hit start to the season behind him.

The defender, who ended Burnley’s eight-game winless run with his first half goal against Brighton, says he is only looking forwards in the Clarets’ bid to climb the table.

Burnley moved in to 17th by virtue of beating the Seagulls 1-0, with Tarkowski becoming the club’s joint top Premier League scorer this season, alongside Sam Vokes, with three.

The centre half, who has recovered from a secondary hernia operation, said: “It’s the best I’ve felt for a long time so it’s nice to be back out there injury free and just being able to concentrate on my football.

“It was a huge win (on Saturday).

“After getting beat in the last couple of games we earmarked it as a big game for us. We knew we needed three points so it was a massive result and it’s really pleasing.”

And the England international admitted he was happy to play his part with the goal as well as the clean sheet.

“I’ve just managed to nick a few here and there,” said the 26-year-old, who turned Jack Cork’s initial strike in off his midriff.

“I turned and saw Corky strike and it just came straight at me. It came off my stomach and went straight in so because I don’t score many I’m going to claim as many as I can. I’m not fake claiming it.”

He added: “We wanted to get the ball into the box and work their keeper, we looked dangerous a few times. It was nice to get the goal from the set piece, but I think the clean sheet was just as important.

“It was massive and you could see how hard the lads were working to keep the clean sheet. It was a great day, but that’s just the start.”

Tarkowski, who missed three games through his latest injury setback, added it was a relief that they were out of the bottom three.

But ahead of tough trips to Spurs and Arsenal before Christmas, he said: “You don’t want to be in there and we’ve got to stay out now.

“We’ve got two difficult games coming up now but we went away last year and took points off Spurs and we know we can perform away from home so that’s what we need to go and do.”

Tarkowski admitted support, both home and away, was invaluable, adding: “I thought the fans were terrific. You could see how much it means to us and to them to get the three points.

“They’ve stuck with us. Obviously it’s not been a great start to the season. We’ve had some very good times over these last few years but obviously it’s been difficult recently and they’ve stuck by us. We need them for the rest of the season.”