CLARKE Carlisle has urged Burnley to keep their nerve and focus, and not let any Premier League travel sickness become a burden.

The Clarets return to home territory on Saturday, when they will hope to extend a 100 per cent record with the visit of fellow newcomers Birmingham City.

With four away defeats, it is their Turf Moor prowess that is keeping them in a respectable mid-table position.

Yet conceding 14 goals on the road, with none in return, has left Owen Coyle’s side with a joint second-worst goal difference of -10.

Their latest loss, a 5-0 thrashing at Spurs, where Robbie Keane scored four, was their heaviest of the season.

But Carlisle and his defensive counterparts intend to pick the bones out of that today to help them move on, and stop the individual mistakes that proved so costly at White Hart Lane from causing further problems, home or away.

“I think it’s very important that we do sit down as a defence this week because, especially with Tyrone (Mears) and Andre (Bikey) being relatively new to the back four, we need to all sit down together and lay out what we expect of each other in a certain situation,” said the 29-year-old centre half.

“There will be differences of opinion, which is excellent, but as long as when it comes to a Saturday we’re doing the same thing no matter whose opinion it is ... I would rather we all did the wrong thing as long as we did it together. Whether we’re all 10 yards off or all 10 yards up, however it is.

“The answers to the questions we’re being asked in games ... sometimes there are none because there are some spectacularly fantastic players in this league.

“The way Robbie Keane pulled off in the hole, he was always too far for me to go but never far enough for me to pass on to Grezza (Graham Alexander). You’ve got to protect in behind because Jermain Defoe’s lightning quick, but you’ve still got to try to get to Robbie Keane by the time the pass gets into him.

“You find the crispness and quality of passing is such that you can’t get anywhere near.

“You protect in behind, you make the movement towards him and he pops it off in one and that’s it. You’ve just been picked apart in two easy moves.

“You need to find the answers to these questions and hopefully Sandy (Stewart), Skip (Steve Davis) and the gaffer will provide them.”

But Carlisle stressed the importance of keeping defeats at Stoke, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs in context.

“It’s been a tough start, a tough sequence of games - but the whole season’s going to be a tough sequence of games,” he said.

“Just before the game at the weekend I heard Paul Merson say that Portsmouth had played all their big teams, now they’ve got their small teams to play.

“But in effect, when you’re not picking up results they become harder games because it’s a higher pressure situation. The outcome of the game to the neutral has a higher value. They’re seen as six-pointers to people who don’t have the same belief as what’s contained within that team.

“We’re coming to a run of games now where I think people will be expecting or looking at it as being where we should be picking our points up, and that just adds to the pressure.

“But as long as we are focused and we approach the game in the same manner as we would if it was Manchester United coming to the Turf, or whoever, then I think we’ll have more than enough to pick up some points.”

He added: “There will be no compromising at all from us home or away, I don’t feel.

“The longer it goes on without an away point the more will be made of it by the media and pundits alike. But we don’t want to apply the added pressure to ourselves.

"It’s not like these away games are a sequence back-to-back. We’ve not lost four games on the bounce.

“It’s all about maintaining focus and discipline, and the points will come.”