Centre half Ben Mee has said he expects there to be ‘exciting times’ ahead for Burnley as we get back to Premier League action this weekend.
Our first league away trip of 2018 sees us go to Crystal Palace this Saturday and having bowed out of the FA Cup for this season with our defeat to Manchester City, Mee isn’t overly concerned that we have now gone six matches without a win.
He prefers to look at it as three successive away games unbeaten.
Speaking to the Official Site with the players back in training this week preparing for our next clash, he explained.
‘It`s a big second half of the season for ourselves, to see where we can take the club. It`s going to be exciting times. We haven`t picked up a win, but we`ve been to Old Trafford and drawn, we`ve played against a tough Tottenham side who were very good, and we got a good away draw at Huddersfield as well. So, we are actually picking up points away from home and we were unlucky in the last minute against Liverpool.’
Mee went on to say that across the period there are plenty of positives we can take.
‘We have been playing well, so we`re not really taking that too much to heart. The stats might say no wins in six, but we`ve got three draws out of that and it`s not all doom and gloom. We are looking forward. We`ve got some good games coming up and ones we feel we can win.’
The Huddersfield game saw us register our tenth clean sheet of the season and only Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United are ahead of us in that particular stat table and for Mee, that tells it’s own story.
On a personal level he now has 87 Premier League games under his belt which is a record amongst the current crop of players which sees Ashley Barnes (84), Scott Arfield (83) and Tom Heaton (77) following behind him.
‘I`m proud of that – definitely. It`s a good stat and it`s a nice feeling to have that and I want to make many more appearances. It`s a shame that Tom got injured as he has, but I`ve enjoyed leading the team out, especially in some of these big games we`ve been playing in. It`s a good feeling to captain a side like this and a team that`s doing really well.’
Reflecting on the clean sheets so far in 2017/18 he ended by saying.
‘To have that many clean sheets is a fantastic record, especially in this league. For a club like us it`s a massive thing and it`s credit to the work we do and the lads who go out there and perform. We do work as a team. The whole team defends really well as a unit. It`s not just the back five who perform well and it`s credit to the lads who work hard in front of us.’
