WADE Elliott hopes “small steps” against Crystal Palace and Plymouth will lead to a giant leap forward as Burnley begin a run of six games in less than three weeks at Nottingham Forest tomorrow.

The winger has revealed how the squad went back to basics to recover from a nightmare start to the season, when seven goals were shipped in the Clarets’ first two Championship fixtures.

The road to recovery began with goalless draws at Palace and at home to the Pilgrims, while continuing their progress in the Carling Cup to earn a home tie with Fulham in round three.

The two-week break for internationals has allowed time for some intensive work on the training ground in preparation for what promises to be a hectic end to the month.

And Elliott insists they must now up the ante to use the anger generated by their winless start to the season to good effect and start climbing the table.

“We’re always kept busy, normally we get one or two days off to get away and recharge the batteries, but on the other hand, you’re going to work hard,” he said.

“It’s been a productive couple of weeks, we’ve had a hard week in training, one or two days to get away from each other and freshen up, and the proof will be in the pudding at Nottingham Forest.

“I think everybody was upset, especially after the first two league games.

“The good thing is we had a bit of a reaction, and we’ll look to take that on.

“We had a bad start, and we’re bedding seven or eight new players into the squad, and no-one took it lightly and went home and thought ‘we’ve always got next week’. The lads were angry about it, and you could see it matters to everybody.”

But Elliott concedes they had become victims of their own pre-season success, as the 2-1 win over Inverness in the last pre-season friendly - in which the 29-year-old broke the deadlock before Chris Eagles scored on his debut - ended a run of six straight runs going into the new campaign.

“You do a pre-season, and you’re never sure how the season is going to go.

“I don’t know whether we played Inverness and it went too well for us.

“I know it sounds silly, but we played a new formation, and we were knocking it about, and it all came very easily.

“I don’t know whether we thought it was just going to happen for us again at Sheffield Wednesday, and we got there and it was a completely different game.

“It was a shock to everyone. I can imagine what it was like on Sky Sports News as the goals were going in!

“But you can’t just go out and expect to play, which maybe the Inverness game lulled us into a little bit, and before you know it, you’re getting steamrollered and it’s a horrible start to the season.

“We’ve learned our lesson, and shown we’re well capable of playing good football and scoring goals, but you have to earn the right to do it.

“We almost went back to basics against Palace and Plymouth.

"To come off the back of a 4-1 and a 3-0, you’re never going to stroll round playing brilliant football, have a big win and things suddenly drop for you.

“You do it in small steps, and we’ve done that in the last couple of games.”

And Elliott is confident their team spirit will be instrumental in an upturn in fortunes.

“There’s a good group of lads, and everyone gets on. The good thing about that is you can be honest and open with each other,” said the former Bournemouth wide man.

“We didn’t just accept getting beat and conceding goals, and forget about it, we have another game next week and it’ll be alright then, we got angry with ourselves and each other, and you could see it really hurt the boys.

“Hopefully that’s shown in the performances since, and certainly in training – I’ve got the scars to prove it as well!”