IT IS, perhaps, a measure of how well the Clarets have performed over the first third of the 2015/16 campaign that a clean sheet and a share of the spoils against Wolves last Saturday felt a little anticlimactic.

It’s strange really, because it wasn’t that long ago that a goalless draw at Molineux would have been greeted with the popping of champagne corks given it was such a graveyard for Burnley.

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Yet the sustained successes of this season have led to a rise in supporter expectation. And given the impressive way the Clarets have gone about their business since August, anything less than a maximum return is almost considered a setback.

It’s difficult to heap too much praise on the way Sean Dyche and his charges have responded not just to relegation but to losing a trio of key players and the relentless nature of life back in the Championship.

The team has taken 17 points from the last 21, have lost only two games all season – and only one of their last 13 since the defeat at Portman Road in mid-August – and find themselves handily placed just outside the automatic promotion places.

The current points tally is 32 from 16 games. And history says that averaging two points a game will almost always see you automatically promoted.

In fact the only time in the last decade when that hasn’t been the case was in 2013/14 when Burnley racked up a scarcely credible 93 points to claim second spot.

In other words, it’s so far so good. It’s certainly a far cry from the last time the Clarets tried to bounce back from a top-flight relegation.

That was in 2010/11 during the troubled tenure of Brian Laws. At this stage of the season five years ago Burnley were in eighth place, nine points worse off than the current crop of Clarets and with just one win in their last five outings.

Laws was eventually relieved of his duties at the end of 2010 to be replaced by Eddie Howe who guided the club to an eighth placed finish – seven points shy of the top six.

Half a decade on and things are somewhat different.

Whereas promotion always felt out of reach during that season and a flat and listless air hung around Turf Moor, this time out there’s a belief and confidence amongst supporters.

And an immediate return to the domestic game’s top table doesn’t look too fanciful.

It’s been a terrific start. Let’s keep it up.