Heaton looking at the bigger picture as Clarets remain outside bottom three

The Clarets hadn’t been given a hope of survival in the Premier League from outsiders, but with 15 games remaining the club sits outside the division’s relegation zone.

After the 2-0 loss to Gus Poyet’s Black Cats on Wearside, Heaton said: “It’s important we don’t take major disappointment, we wanted to get a result but we’ll keep moving forward.

“We’re still out of the bottom three with 15 games to go, what a great position to be in.

“We’re all ready to battle it out for this final 15 games and we’re looking forward to it. We just need to output the maximum performance and that will give us a good chance of picking up the points.

“There’s a lot of teams in the mix and we couldn’t ask for anymore than to be a part of that. We’ve got a lot of belief in the squad.

“The last two results haven’t been ideal but you’re going to get that in the Premier League.”

Heaton acknowledges that the Clarets face 15 ‘cup finals’ in their bid to remain at this level, but insists his team-mates have adopted that mentality throughout the course of the season.

“They’re all big games now, there is no getting away from that, but they’ve been big games all season,” said Heaton.

“It’s another game at home and one we will look to go and win. Hopefully we’ll put our marker down and get the win.

“We play like every game is a cup final, as you should do, that’s been the theme under this manager.

“We’re just making sure everything is in place to give everything and that’s all you can do to maximise your chance of winning the football match.”

Heaton added: “You’ve seen over the past 18 months generally that when the going gets tough you back this team to show a bit of character and come through.

“It’s important we keep the focus on what we need to do and how we need to go about it, and that will give us the best chance.

“It’s a great position for us to be in going into the last 15 games, we’ll look forward to that challenge.”