MICHAEL Kightly is happy to be back in action for Burnley after admitting it has been a ‘frustrating’ season for him so far.

The winger has started the last two games against Chelsea and Manchester United in place of the injured Dean Marney, who is out for the rest of the season with a cruciate knee ligament injury.

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Kightly hopes to take his opportunity in the middle of the park, with Scott Arfield now in central midfield, but admits he is disappointed for 31-year-old Marney.

“It’s nice to be back playing because it’s been a bit frustrating this year,” said Kightly.

“I haven’t played as much as I would have liked. I’m obviously disappointed with Dean Marney’s injury, which I don’t like to see, but it’s allowed me to get in to the team. It’s up to me to take that opportunity now.”

Kightly is set to keep his place for the weekend visit of Swansea, a game which he knows is crucial as the Clarets look to move out of the relegation zone.

“It’s massive, every game now is massive,” he added. They’re on the back of a good result so they’ll be full of confidence themselves.

“We’ve got a strong belief in our squad that we can win games and we’ll look to go on and do that.

“If we can build on recent performances we know we’ll pick up points. Hopefully come the end of the season we’ll have enough to stay up.

“We definitely don’t want it to end. We worked so hard last year to get here, to come to stadiums like Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford. It’s great and we want to do it again next year.”

For Kightly, a veteran of top-flight games with Wolves and Stoke, going to Chelsea to attack was a new experience.

“I’ve been here a few times before,” said Kightly of his experience at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. “But when I’ve come here with previous teams we’ve sat behind the ball.

“We didn’t do that on Saturday and I really enjoyed it. We probably did that a little bit against Arsenal but we looked at that and quickly realised that isn’t the way we play and that’s not how we got in to this league. We’ve shown that on Saturday and we showed that against Man United.

“That’s what we do; we try to press teams and we want to get on the front foot. That’s when we’re at our best.

“Those are our strengths, that’s how we want to play, and if we try to play any other way then we’ll be playing into the hands of our opponents.”