BURNLEY have made sure there is more to this season than derby honours. But Ben Mee is hoping to make sure the Clarets finally claim them.

Eleven meetings with Blackburn Rovers over almost 35 years have not gone in Burnley’s favour.

They have come close to a long-awaited win in their last two meetings.

A late goal for David Dunn at Ewood Park last season, and Lee Williamson’s cynical foul on Danny Ings – denying a potential goalscoring opportunity at Turf Moor in September, were the major incidents which prevented the Clarets from earning bragging rights for the first time since 1979.

But with Burnley going into today’s East Lancashire clash on an 11-game unbeaten league run, Mee is ready to re-write history, admitting talk of ‘35 years’ had worn thin.

“It’s not great to have that hanging over the club against a big rival like that,” he said.

“It would be nice to put that to bed and move on.

“I’m sure the people around here will enjoy it if we do.

“It will be nice to get that off our back,” added the former Manchester City youngster, who has seen the balance of power shift in favour of his old club over rivals Manchester United.

“I know City waited a long time to do it for themselves.

“It will be great for the Burnley fans to shake that off.

“They (Rovers) have had a few lucky breaks and escapes in the last few games but that happens.

“We just want to go and win the game, a little bit of history as well will go along nicely. Hopefully we can break the duck.”

But Mee said the second-placed Clarets are cautious of putting too much emphasis on one game and losing sight of the bigger picture, after boosting their promotion prospects with back-to-back home wins over top six rivals Nottingham Forest and Derby County in their last two games.

“I’m looking forward to the whole run-in really,” he said. “It’s been a good couple of weeks for us, two big results. Hopefully we can finish this block of three off with a really good win.

“With playing Sunday and Wednesday (at Birmingham) it’s a big week as well. Every game’s important now so every game’s a big game for us. We’re flying at the minute and doing well, we just need to continue it.”