BURNLEY captain Tom Heaton is targeting the Championship’s top spot after helping the Clarets extend their unbeaten league run to seven games.

Heaton made two good saves in the 1-0 victory over table toppers Hull City at Turf Moor which moved Burnley to within a point of the division’s top two.

Victory over Fulham on November 3 had moved Burnley into second place, but having established themselves in the top two they went on to win just one of their next eight games to fall away from the automatic promotion spots.

But victory over the Tigers has once again closed the gap to them and Middlesbrough, and rather than worrying about letting it slip for a second time, Heaton is looking to go the other way.

“We don’t want to let it slip. We’ll be thinking about overtaking these teams and increasing the gap,” he said.

“We do that by focusing on us and not taking too much notice of what’s going on around us. It’s the last few games of the season that you do that but at this moment there’s a long way to go.

“We need to keep building and keep pushing forward. We’ve got enough about us to do that.”

The unbeaten run has come on the back of a 3-0 defeat at Hull on Boxing Day.

Since then the Clarets have beaten promotion rivals Derby and Hull at home, as well as picking up impressive results away from home.

And asked if they’ve stepped performances up a level since Boxing Day, Heaton said: “I think that’s probably fair. The basics were always there, we showed it in glimpses. Of late it’s really clicked and we’ve used that and taken it forward.

“We did show glimpses but consistently it wasn’t there as much as it has been of late so that’s been really pleasing.

“On top of that we’ve kicked everything on with it. The defending has been superb, we’ve scored a lot of goals, it’s been brilliant, but it’s not all singing, all dancing, there’s a long way to go and we’re ready to roll the sleeves up a bit more and keep mucking in and moving forward.”

Saturday’s victory also marked an 11th clean sheet of the season, and Heaton was full of praise for the work of the defence in front of him.

“It’s brilliant to keep a clean sheet. The lads have been defending superbly well of late and I thought that was on show again,” he said.

“It’s the willingness to put bodies on the line and get heads in the way. I know I always say it but most teams aren’t willing to do it all the time but we are, that’s what makes us tough to beat.

“It’s that framework and system we stick too. If they have a good patch, like they did after half time, we don’t give anything away easily, if you’re going to score you have to really break us down and that gives you a great foundation.”