Brian Laws believes his Burnley side can climb out of the Premier League relegation zone and survive the drop this season.

The Clarets are three points from safety and Laws is more than aware of the task he faces if he is to keep the top-flight new boys up this season.

"Nobody's kidding themselves, of course it's a tall order (to stay up),” he told the Burnley Express.

“We know there's starting to be a gap. But you can't let that ruin a great season that the club have had.

"We're still in the fight. It's well and truly mathematically possible. But we've got to start winning games.”

The former Sheffield Wednesday manager believes he can take encouragement from the defeat to Wigan last weekend.

"Performances like Saturday at Wigan encourage you to believe you can go on and win games in the Premier League,” he added.

"We've got to keep believing that we can turn things around, and certainly that performance alone will tell me and tells everybody else - the supporters in particular - that the players haven't given up.

"They're going to keep driving on, and if they put in performances like that, particularly against our next opponents, which is going to be a huge game for us, we could see ourselves winning that game, for sure.”

Burnley’s next opponents are local rivals Blackburn Rovers and Laws cant wait for his first taste of the Lancashire derby.

"We have to lift ourselves up and prepare ourselves for a magnificent game against Blackburn. I can't wait!" he said.

A win against their local rivals would give Burnley a huge boost in their attempts to survive the drop this season. Blackburn won the reverse fixture at Ewood Park earlier this season and Laws will be hoping that his teams can make home advantage count at Turf Moor.