Steven Caldwell has urged his Burnley side not to give up in their fight against relegation.
Clarets skipper calls for team spirit
Steven Caldwell has urged his Burnley side not to give up in their fight against relegation and treat their remaining games as 'cup finals'
The struggling Lancashire outfit have seen their bright start to the season become a dogfight against demotion to the Championship.
With time running out on a bid to save their top flight status, the Clarets skipper is in a prime position to know the difficulties of fighting the drop, having been relegated with Sunderland in 2006 with the worst points total in Premier League history at the time.
But Caldwell insisted that this campaign bears no comparison to his ill fated season at the Black Cats, and that it was an experience he would like to repeat.
"It was a record point low at the time but to be honest, I try to put that out of my mind," he said.
"It's not an experience I would like to have again because it was so disappointing and hard to take.
"We started off poorly and the inevitability of relegation came early for us. It was a horrible feeling playing something like eight out of ten games knowing we were getting relegated."
Caldwell goes back to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland on Saturday desperate for his side to achieve a victory that would put them in with a better chance of survival.
'Cup final'
Burnley moved level on points with Hull City after their 4-1 victory over the Tigers in their previous game eased the pressure on under-fire boss Brian Laws and made up for their embarrassing 6-1 defeat at home to Manchester City.
Caldwell acknowledged that despite the magnitude of the task to stay up, a vital win against Sunderland could be a turning point.
He said: "Even when we went into the bottom three we always thought one or two wins would put us right back in it. We managed to get that away win at Hull, a team around us.
"So now we are above them and have managed to drag a few more teams back into it as well.
"We have to back it up with another victory now. We have to treat it like a cup final, get the first goal and see where we go from here."
