DAVID Unsworth has revealed he would love to end his playing career with Burnley.

The former Everton defender was brought in on a free transfer ahead of the Clarets' second game of the season, after being released by Wigan Athletic last May.

At the time, the 34-year-old agreed a one-year deal with former manager Steve Cotterill.

He has gone on to combine his playing duties with coaching at the club, as he studies for his UEFA A' coaching licence by working with the youth team and reserves.

But after insisting he feels he has "a couple of seasons" left as a player, Unsworth is hoping to holds talks with current boss Owen Coyle at the end of this season about extending his stay.

"I hope those seasons will be here," he said.

"I said to the gaffer in January that, at this stage of my career, I don't want to be moving around.

"So hopefully we'll sit down at the end of the season and sort something out.

"I've really enjoyed this season, and we're still in there fighting.

"Without a doubt, the club has ambition; the chairman, manager and the players want to be successful.

"We have a slim chance of going up this year and, if not, we definitely want to make it next year.

"What's happening with the redevelopment of the ground ties in great if we can do it next year. It's certainly a club that won't stand still.

"This club is going forward, and all the players want to be a part of that."

But with the visit of his former club, Sheffield United, tomorrow, the focus remains on bridging the four-point gap between themselves and that coveted sixth spot in the remaining four games.

"We know we can be as good, if not better, than any of the top teams, and as a group of players," he said.

"The thing is being consistent. We know we have the players to be good enough, we just haven't been consistent enough unfortunately.

"No team in the top half can seem to put a consistent run of results together to grab an automatic or play-off spot.

"It's been an amazing season. If you were a betting man, you would never touch the Championship because anyone can beat anyone, this season in particular."

Such an open run-in is far removed from when he won promotion to the Premier League with Sheffield United in 2005/06, when the Blades and Reading created a two-horse race for the title almost instantly.

"When I signed for Sheffield United after the third game, they were second, and we never went out of the top two," he said.

"Leeds got close, but there was a big gap after that.

"But I just think there are better players in the Championship now.

"There are more teams with better players fighting for the top spots.

"I do think there is a knock-on effect from the Premier League, in terms of the foreign players coming in maybe the British lads, or foreigners already here as squad players, want to play week in, week out.

"Because the Championship is a better standard now, they have taken that step down, to come back up, and that's why I think more clubs have better quality players than ever before, and more teams are pushing for the top spots.

"But there are no gurantees even when you drop down from the Premier League that you'll bounce straight back up. The league's so tight now."

While Unsworth remains up for a fight to the finish, the Chorley-born stopper cannot help but reflect on missed opportunities to edge into the top six.

"We haven't been in the play-off positions all season and for a team of our quality, when we're playing well, it's disappointing," he said.

"Maybe a lack of consistency is a mental thing for us.

"I think if we could have got into the play-off positions and physically seen the league table on the television or in the paper and say right, we're in the top six now', maybe that might have helped.

"We were disappointed at Norwich last Saturday after the performance and result.

"But nine times out of 10 when we've had a bad result we've bounced straight back and put in a performance and got a result, so we'd like to think we could do that again.

"We know we should have and could be in the top six now, with the amount of points we've dropped, but we're still in there fighting.

"It makes our job a little bit easier now in terms of knowing we've got to go out and win all four games.

"Nothing less than that will be good enough. So in that respect it's all guns blazing for the last four games.

"If you said to me now we've got to go to Palace and win our last game (to get sixth spot) we'd take it.

"No team scares us in terms of going out there and beating them, because we've beaten all the top teams, home or away.

"There's no team that scares you, and certainly Crystal Palace don't.

"But I just hope we do get to that situation where we have to win on the last game to get in the play-offs.

"That'd be brilliant."