MICHAEL Duff says Burnley must try to keep their survival hopes alive until the final day of the season.

The Clarets sit five points adrift of safety with only four games left to play after their 1-0 loss at home to Leicester City and now risk a repeat of their previous Premier League campaign, when they were relegated before the final day.

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Duff was part of that 2009/10 team, who were consigned to the drop with two games still remaining after a 4-0 home defeat to Liverpool, and says his target all season has been to take Burnley’s survival race to the final day of the campaign this time around.

The defender believes the Clarets need to win three of their remaining four games to survive – a steep task considering they have won only five times all season.

Burnley’s final match is at Aston Villa, who could potentially be distracted by the FA Cup final if their Premier League status is secure by then.

Asked if taking their survival hopes to the last day must now be the Clarets’ aim, Duff said: “Absolutely.

“I’d have taken that from the first game of the season, so nothing’s changed there.

“I think we need to win at least three games now.

“I’d imagine if we don’t win three it probably won’t be enough.”

Burnley travel to West Ham United on Saturday and a draw at Upton Park would normally be considered a good result, but Duff admits it has become a must win match now.

“We put pressure on ourselves to go and win every game,” he said.

“Sometimes you reflect on games and say yes you’d have probably taken a draw, but I don’t think draws will be enough now.

“If we get four draws from the next four games, we’ll get relegated.”

Duff is playing only his second season of top flight football after starting his career with Cheltenham Town, who he helped into the Football League in 1999.

The defender was dealt a double blow at the weekend as the Robins were relegated back to the Conference, on top of Burnley’s own devastating defeat.

But Duff says the fact that he and many of his team-mates have been getting a rare taste of the Premier League this season means they will not give up in their survival bid.

“We’ve worked too hard to get here,” said the 37-year-old.

“We’re not a team, unlike some of the other teams who are in and around it, who have got Premier League players who have spent their whole career in the Premier League.

“We’ve got a lot of players who have come from a lot lower down.

“I think you can see that in the performances. The lads are working their socks off.

“We maybe need a little bit of a break, something to go our way.

“But in the next four games - win, lose or draw - the opposition will know they’ve been in a game.

“Whether it’s enough or we’re good enough to stay up, I can’t tell that, but we’ll have a go.

“It’s going to be tough, but we were written off at the start of the season, we were written off at the back end of last year so nothing’s changed. We’ve got four games left and we’ll have a go.

“The worst case scenario is we’ll have a go, whether we win, lose or draw in the next four games.

“There’s no point us worrying about other teams’ run-ins and what games they’ve got, unless we start winning games we’re not going to stay up.

“We’re not naive enough to think that doing all right in games is good enough, because it isn’t.”