MICHAEL Duff insists Burnley can shoot back up the Championship table with a couple of quick wins.

After losing to Barnsley on Boxing Day, the Clarets slipped to 10th in the league, but are still well involved in a massive scramble for automatic promotion and play-off places.

Birmingham look well on course for a return trip to the Premiership, a run of five successive wins putting Steve Bruce's side eight points clear of Preston at the division's summit.

But a congested table sees just seven points separating second-placed North End and Sheffield Wednesday, who in 12th position are level on points with Burnley.

A spate of victories could send the Clarets soaring back towards the top six and defender Duff believes they are more than capable of beating anybody on the day.

"The league is much of a muchness," admits the Northern Ireland international. "We are playing teams that seem to be in and around you all the time.

"A couple of wins shoots you up the table and you drop down if you lose a couple.

"I don't think really there's an outstanding team this year. Reading ran away with it last year and I don't know whether Birmingham might go on a little bit now.

"But it's all to play for. A couple of wins will put us right back in the mix.

"Maybe we've been a little bit hard done by in recent games.

"But there's no point in us feeling sorry for ourselves.

"You earn your own luck and if we keep working hard, we will be alright."

Duff added: "We can't look too far ahead. It's a cliche but games are coming up thick and fast at the moment and you don't really have time to prepare properly for the next game, never mind looking ahead.

"We must put our heads down for the next two or three weeks and then assess where we are and what we can do."

Over the last few weeks, Burnley's back four and goalkeeper place have regularly chopped and changed due to injury and suspensions.

But defensive alterations have not affected Duff, who is enjoying his best season at Turf Moor since making the switch from Cheltenham in the summer of 2004.

"I'm doing alright," explained the 27-year-old.

"We've got some good centre-halves at the club and it helps playing alongside good players.

"I've been lucky enough that I started the season playing at centre-half, which is somewhere I've always said I wanted to play.

"But I know it could quite easily change again, so that keeps me on my toes and hopefully I will do alright.

"We haven't really had a settled back four - or back five because the goalkeepers have changed two or three times.

"If the team does alright and I keep doing alright then hopefully we'll be there or thereabouts at the end of the season."