THE heat of a relegation battle calls for a steely nerve and an unflappable approach to the job in hand.

Thankfully for Burnley they have a goalkeeper who is calm personified going into tomorrow's crunch Sunday lunch meeting with Macclesfield Town at Turf Moor.

Paul Crichton could have been forgiven for feeling a little shell-shocked after lining up behind the leakiest defence in Division Two and recently conceding 11 goals in two home matches.

But his confidence remains undented and his performances certainly haven't suffered.

"It's not very nice to be picking the ball out of the net five and six times.

"It would concern me if I was throwing a few in but I think I could perhaps only have done better on something like three of the goals that have gone in.

"I will just keep going, making as many saves as possible," said Crichton, who solved the Clarets lingering goalkeeping conundrum when signing on a permanent basis from West Bromwhich Albion last November.

Since his arrival Crichton has had only one poor game which coincided with a 2-0 defeat at Wycombe a month ago.

He looks to have worked hard on his handling of crosses since then and certainly refuses to panic about Burnley's position in the Second Division relegation zone.

"I have been in a lot worse situations, even though this is bad," he revealed. "I have twice been given free transfers and been out of work for three months so this is a drop in the ocean.

"I've never been relegated but when I was at Peterborough in the Fourth Division we went from mid-table down towards the bottom and it looked like we might go out of the League and I had a few scrapes while I was at Doncaster."

Crichton isn't taking matters lightly, however.

"We have got ourselves into this trouble and now we have to got to get ourselves out of it," he insisted.

Burnley's last two performances, when Crichton has had little to do bar one point-saving stop at Wrexham last Saturday, suggest that the Clarets can get themselves out of a tight spot for the second season running.

However, they must get some points on the board quickly, starting against a revitalised Macclesfield side that looked doomed to an instant return to the Third Division before embarking on a three-match winning streak.

"We are looking a lot better," Crichton said. "We just need to out there tomorrow and get three points, which seems easy enough when you just say it. We have got enough good players to get out of the mire. The manager has brought some decent players in. We just need to gel.

"We've got 10 games left and we will try and win every game. But we definitely need five wins. If we get five we will give ourselves half a chance."

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