Burnley man delivers defiant message ahead of huge Bournemouth six-pointer

The Clarets suffered a damaging 3-0 defeat to Brentford last week to lose for the seventh time in just nine games at the start of the season.

It leaves Vincent Kompany’s men third from bottom, one point and one position above Saturday’s opponents Bournemouth, who have yet to pick up their first win of the campaign.

Rather than fear what feels like a hugely significant game, Cullen insists it’s one he and his teammates will embrace.

"Every game is important, but it’s a great opportunity for us to bounce back next week,” he told Clarets+.

"That’s the good thing about football, there’s always the next week, the next game.

"We’ve just got to stick together as a group in what is a difficult time at the moment. Obviously the dressing room is not overly pleased with how we performed [against Brentford], but we need to stick together as a group and do everything we can, like we always do, to get a win.

"It’s football, you have ups and downs and highs and lows. It’s trying to keep that mindset and believe in what you’re doing and what is right for us.

"We’ve just got to keep going, it’s as simple as that.”

Cullen accepts Burnley were well off the pace in their defeat to Brentford last weekend.

The Clarets were especially poor during the first-half, where they were fortunate to only be trailing by one goal at the break.

"In key moments at the minute we haven’t been quite good enough,” Cullen added.

We need to learn fast, but we also need to stick together as a group and go again next week.

"The main message to take away is that we’re nothing without the basics and the fight we need to show as a team. We can’t accept what happened in the first-half.”