The 20-year-old Dubliner is intent on finishing the campaign on a high, to set up another assault on promotion next term.

And McCann insists the club is only heading in one direction on and off the field – up.

He said: "I think we're going forward.

"It's getting tougher and tougher every year, you can't really anticipate what's going to happen.

"But one thing's for sure is this club's going forward. The team that we have, the manager's going to add to it in the summer as well.

"It's only going to get stronger, we've confidence in the team that we can do better than what we're doing.

"We know we're capable of being in the top six and getting promotion.

"We've shown this year we can beat anybody, we can go away from home and beat teams.

"It's a very positive time for the club with the new stadium.

"There's a great bunch of lads and the manager will hopefully add to it and push us on next season.

"Who know's where we'll be then."

Burnley still have to travel to Southampton on Saturday, and Crystal Palace on the last day of the season, with a home clash with FA Cup Finalists Cardiff City in between, and McCann is eager to finish as high up the table as possible: "The last three games aren't going to be easy, but there are nine points at stake and we want them to get us back up the table.

"We're not going to stop trying, we're going to give it our all.

"We're going to keep going. We don't want the season just to whimper out."

But he admits the side only have themselves to blame for missing out on a top-six slot: "It's our fault.

"For the team we have, I don't think the position shows how good we are.

"We should be up challenging in the top six at least with the squad we have, it's just not happening at the minute.

"There are home games we should have won, but we've just not taken the chances we should be taking – the easy chances – and conceding silly goals as well has been our downfall.

"We're giving goals away too easy. We're getting back behind the ball, we're not pressing as a unit, we're not picking up late runners.

"If we can shut them out, we know we're going to score goals, and we'll have no problems."

McCann also believes the club have the right man at the helm in Owen Coyle: "The manager's very ambitious. He's very enthusiastic every day in training, training's really sharp and since he's come in, the confidence has grown in the team and we've taken it into our performances in training.

"Every day he comes in and his enthusiasm rubs off on you.

"He joins in training and encourages everyone, he never criticises.

"He's always wanting to help you and encourage you, and that's a great thing to have in a manager."

Coyle is also a fan of McCann, stating back in December after the win at Wolves that: "If someone was to ask me to draw a photo-fit of the modern midfield player, I would draw Chris McCann."

McCann brushes off the plaudits, however: "I don't really pay much attention to what's said – you just want to focus on your own game and just keep doing what you know you can do, and just do as well as you can for the team.

"It is a big lift (when people say good things), but I think you know yourself when you're doing well, or not doing well, you just need to focus on your own game and keep improving on your own game, and that's all you can do.

"But the manager hasn't just given me a big lift, he's given me the confidence to drive forward more and improved my game.

"He talks to you about things you can do better, or things you've done well, and he'll encourage you to do the good things better.

"I've been driving forward a lot more, getting into the box a lot more and scoring more goals, and hopefully I can just keep adding to my game.

"I think I could have had a couple more goals. I'm not going to stop, I want a couple more goals before the end of the season, so hopefully that will happen."

McCann was the pick of the Burnley players in the 2-1 defeat to Sheffield United, and is happy to be coming back to form after a niggling injury: "I'm happy with my own performance, but as a team we have to look at everyone's performance and see that we want to get 100% out of everybody every week if we're going to be achieving top six.

"I started off well, then got suspended, then got an injury, and my form kind of dipped a bit, but hopefully this can just kick-start me to finish the last couple of games strongly.

"I don't think I was as sharp as what I was coming back (from injury).

"Last week I just had a poor game by my own standards. It was just one of those days really.

"I did a lot better here, and hopefully I can continue that for the rest of the season."