Premier League destiny in our own hands - David Jones

We are getting towards the business end of the season, into the last seven games, and things are getting a little tense in the fight for survival.

Tuesday night saw Aston Villa play out a 3-3 draw with QPR at Villa Park, that, at various points of the game, saw Villa sit between 15th and 18th in the table.

Things are tight at the bottom, with Burnley level on points with QPR, two behind Hull and three behind Villa and Sunderland, with Leicester three adrift of the Clarets.

But Jones is only focusing on what the Clarets do.

Asked what his advice was, regarding other sides’ games and results, he smiled: “Just don’t watch it! You put yourself in turmoil. Stay away and look at the result.

“But because it’s so tight, our destiny is in our own hands, it’s only when you get to a situation where you need to win and someone else to draw, that you look at results.

“It’s tempting, but for your own sanity, just stay away from it and look after yourselves.

“We just want to get as many points as we can, that’s been our mentality, to keep going, and not let anything affect us.

“We’ve got a tremendous mentality to put the last result behind us and move on, and keep momentum going.

“That’s something the manager and staff have built, and we’ll keep going to the end.”

And Jones feels that togetherness of the squad is a major asset in the battle to stay up: “You can’t get carried away with what people are doing, just focus on the job at hand. And you need a squad fully together, working hard for each other like we are. I think that’s key.

“You can’t stay in this division with a fragmented squad and no team spirit.

“In terms of that, we’re heading in the right direction.

“You need the whole squad thinking along the same lines, and I’ve been in teams before where you get groups breaking off with different agendas, but the manager has built the mentality here to be in the right place together when we hit difficult positions in seasons like this, where there is a lot of pressure.

“I feel we’re more than equipped to deal with the pressure.”

Burnley have played on that freedom to perform all season - with all outsiders expecting them to finish 20th from the moment they were promoted.

Financially there is more pressure on every other club to survive, while Burnley ponder ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’

And Jones added: “That freedom might be the ingredient that helps you express yourself a little bit more, I think we’ve proven we’ve got more to us than high energy and organisation - we’ve got quality and it’s one of these things, without playing in the Premier League, you can think ‘have I got the quality to do it?’ and I think, as the season has gone on, the belief has flowed through the group.

“We know we are competitive in every game, and that is key, and look after ourselves. I believe we’ve more than been in a lot of games where we could have got more points, so if we continue with that same mentality, I believe we’ll get enough points.”