BETTER together and building for next season, that’s the message from inside the Clarets camp as they prepare to bid farewell to Premier League football for at least another season.

Burnley host Stoke City in their final home game of 2014/15 this afternoon, playing for pride and positional finance after suffering relegation this season.

It is expected to be striker Danny Ings’ last appearance in a Clarets shirt at Turf Moor, with the top scorer set for a summer move to Anfield at the end of his four-year contract.

But goalkeeper Tom Heaton hopes they can keep the number of exits to a minimum in order to strengthen their hand for an immediate top flight return.

“Once it’s mathematically impossible to stay up, as it is now, the building and momentum already starts,” said the stopper, who unlike his previous relegation experience, with Bristol City, feels he is part of a united squad and not on that is on the verge of fragmenting.

“Probably at other teams it’s felt a bit more separated but certainly this dressing room isn’t like that. There’s still that togetherness.

“This week’s been a good indication of that. The training intensity is still very good, still very high and there’s a demand on everyone to perform and that won’t stop, and that’s very important.

“We want to finish the season strongly and then that almost takes you into next year. It’s a short break this year, the important thing is we bounce back quickly with the appetite and motivation to get back to the Premier League. There’s more than enough ability in that squad to get straight back up there and compete again next year.

“That’s certainly my appetite and that of individuals. We can start building momentum now to get ready for the new season.”

And Heaton feels it is important that manager Sean Dyche remains at the helm.

“He’s been fantastic to play for,” he said.

“There are clear messages and you can follow it. As players he makes it simple, you can get behind it.

“You can see in the performances, last season especially but even this season, without the expectation there people will say we’ve over-achieved this season and a lot of that’s down to him.”

Despite becoming the first team to be relegated from the top flight this season, Heaton feels they can take plenty of encouragement from their performances as they look to plot another promotion campaign.

“We’ve competed in every game this season which is something we wanted to do. We feel like we’ve had some really good performances and some very good results. There are probably a few games that have got away from us a little bit, that’s probably my opinion really,” he said.

“We talk about fine margins in football, when we’ve perhaps dominated the first half of games and maybe not taken our chances or conceded at the wrong time, perhaps, late on in halves.

“Those sort of things went for us last season and this season probably too many of those things got away.

“It’s frustrating really, because we probably feel there was more there.

“It’s just the points maybe didn’t add up to as many as what we feel they should have done.”