Taking on the captaincy is a 'great honour' for Clarets goalscorer James Tarkowski

The 27-year-old assumed the role of acting skipper in the absence of Ben Mee, who could be sidelined for the rest of the season with a thigh strain.

And he marked the added responsibility with the opening goal in the 1-1 draw with Sheffield United at Turf Moor.

The centre-half pounced to stab the ball past Dean Henderson from close range on the stroke of half-time after Jay Rodriguez flicked on Dwight McNeil's set-piece.

"It's a great honour," he said. "I've been captain in a couple of cup games before but to lead the team out in the Premier League is a great honour for me. I'm proud to be a part of this club and how well we've done recently.

"With Westy and Dwight you can always rely on where it's going to go. Myself and Ben [Mee] should probably have scored a few more this year, we've had a lot of chances, so it's nice to get on the scoresheet and hopefully there'll be more to come before the season's over."

Tarkowski, like others in the squad, has yet to miss a minute of action in the top flight this term.

Sean Dyche's side have played three times in 10 days recently, but Tarkowski says there's still plenty of fuel in the tank.

After picking up their seventh point in that sequence, as John Egan denied them the maximum in their latest outing, he said: "We were close. I thought we played really well in the second half so it was a shame with the way they scored their goal, but overall we were pretty solid throughout the whole game. There are definitely positives for us to look at.

"We felt good. The club has got us back in good condition with a couple of tough weeks during the mini pre-season that we had.

"I think that's showing, we looked really fit out there and we're happy to take on anyone fitness-wise when we get out on the pitch."