MARTIN Paterson believes taking a leaf out of his old club’s book will be key to Premier League survival.

Burnley don’t have to wait long to sample first hand just what it takes to retain top flight status.

Their opening game is at the Britannia Stadium, where Paterson’s football education began and where Stoke picked up 35 of the 45 points the accrued overall to earn a 12th placed finish following promotion last year.

The 22-year-old goes back to his hometown with the Clarets on Saturday looking to follow their lead.

“They were excellent last year. I think the management and coaching staff did such a good job, and the players responded well,” said Paterson, who left the Potters for Scunthorpe in 2007 before joining Burnley last summer.

“Home form kept them up, making the Britannia a fortress, and that’s what we’ve got to try to do here.”

Stoke were famed for a stentorian atmosphere, with their fans labelled the loudest in the Premier League last season.

And Paterson hopes that can be replicated at Turf Moor.

“We’ve got to make it such a horrible place to come and play football. Without over-doing it the fans have got to be intimidating and really get into people,” said the Northern Ireland international.

“We might not have the talent of the super Premier League teams and the big names and the big stars, but what we do have is a good ethic within the team of hard work.

“We’ve got our own quality players - I’m not saying we’ve not got quality - what I’m saying is people have an abundance of it in a bigger squad, so we’re going to need the crowd and Turf Moor to be rocking every matchday and really intimidate people.”

It’s a little over 12 months since Paterson arrived at Turf Moor as a then club record signing at £1.3million. That has since been broken by the £3m capture of fellow forward Steven Fletcher from Hibernian. But losing the tag is not something that concerns him.

“As soon as you get into the Premier League that fee’s going to be broken,” said Paterson.

“To get a player in it costs you £3million usually, so it was always going to go, and I was never really fussed about it anyway.

“My job is also to score goals, so I’ve got to concentrate on doing that, if selected.”

Although top scorer Paterson contributed 19 goals in Burnley’s promotion-winning campaign, injury meant he missed out on his minimum target of 20.

Now, a place in the Premier League has led him to re-evaluate his aims.

“My target’s just to play. Everyone wants to play,” he said.

“I have no targets until I’m selected in the team.”