Boyd out to seal survival

Burnley begin a succession of games on the road against Boyd’s former club, Hull City, tomorrow with trips to the Liberty Stadium, Anfield and the Stadium of Light to follow.

With 13 games remaining, the Clarets hold a 10-point advantage over the Tigers but tomorrow’s opponents have been in fine form under new boss Marco Silva at the KCOM Stadium.

Since installing the Portuguese coach, City have won all four games on home soil, beating Bournemouth and Liverpool in the league, easing past Swansea City in the FA Cup, before edging the second leg of their EFL Cup semi-final tie against Manchester United.

“The pressure is more on them than us, we’ve got that nice gap,” Boyd said. “We want to get our away record going.

“It’s a great opportunity in the next four or five games to be safe. We could get our safety in the next three or four games, so that’s the main aim.

“We’ve worked so hard, to get it done this early would be a massive achievement. The sooner we can get it done, the better.”

The 31-year-old was signed for City by Steve Bruce, initially on loan from Peterborough United, four years ago and contributed to the club’s promotion.

He made 54 appearances for the club, including a cameo in the FA Cup final against Arsenal in 2014 and an appearance in the Europa League at Belgian side Lokeren.

“Me and Robbie (Brady) are going back to Hull,” said Boyd. “We’ll hopefully get the three points and put them in even more trouble, that’s the main aim.

“It’s always nice to go back. There’s been a bit of a squad overhaul there now and there’s not many left (from my time) but it will be nice to go back and it’s most important we get the result we need.

“You get a lot of foreign lads come in and it can take time to gel but he (Marco Silva) seems to have got them in straight away and they’ve picked up some results. Hopefully we’ll stop that.”

Sean Dyche’s side suffered a shock defeat to National League leaders Lincoln City at the weekend.

However, Boyd insists that he and his team-mates won’t be suffering from any kind of hangover.

“It’s gone now,” he said. “It comes from the gaffer, he parks it straightaway and we need a reaction.”