BURNLEY may be down to the bare bones but James Tarkowski is not using that as an excuse as the Clarets chase European football.

Monday night’s 1-0 win at Crystal Palace made it a record-breaking 13 Premier League clean sheets for Sean Dyche’s side this season.

They did so with a threadbare square and a growing injury list that now includes Jack Cork who limped off at Selhurst Park.

Ashley Barnes, Chris Wood, Robbie Brady, Johan Berg Gudmundsson and Matt Lowton have all been out injured and while Jay Rodriguez missed the trip to Palace he could be fit for Sunday’s clash with Sheffield United at Turf Moor.

With Aaron Lennon and Jeff Hendrick also leaving the club after their contracts ran out, Burnley could only name an inexperienced subs bench of seven players.

But Tarkowski said Dyche will not let the players feel sorry for themselves.

“We could make easy excuses but we’re not allowing that to happen. We want to go out there and win football matches,” Tarkowski told the club website.

“There’s no chance and the gaffer won’t let us do that.

"He’s made a point of not letting us do that and as a group we’re not happy to do that.

“We want to go out there and we want to win games. There are opportunities there for us.

“We’ve lost a couple of great lads and great players and it’s not nice to see faces leave but we’ve got to deal with the numbers we’ve got and hopefully a few lads will come back from injury.”

After a tough 5-0 defeat to Manchester City in their first game since Project Restart, the Clarets have bounced back with successive 1-0 wins over Watford and Palace to make in just one loss in their last 10 games.

“We’ve picked up six points and we can see many more games coming up where we can pick up points,” he added. “So we’re looking up and hopefully chasing the teams above us, rather than looking down.”

With six games remaining, European qualification is still on the cards for Burnley, something that appeals to Tarkowski.

"We’ve been there once before and it’s something we want to do," he said. "There are a few games to go but there are points to pick up, so we are looking forward to the start of this run-in now.”