MARK McGregor has called on his fellow defenders to help Brian Jensen rack up more clean sheets.

The Burnley back line has been breached far too often in the first half of the season, with Jensen totalling just four shut-outs in the league.

The New Year brought about a welcome change in fortune, with a reshuffled defence keeping out one of the top scoring teams in England to eliminate Mansfield from the FA Cup last weekend.

And McGregor, who has made just a handful of appearances since recovering from summer knee surgery, intends to play his part in revving up a Clarets revival.

The former Wrexham defender said: "Brian has not got too many clean sheets to his name so far and he is disappointed about that.

"But we got the clean sheet in the FA Cup and now we have to build on that in the league. The gaffer always goes on at us about it being an important part of our game and with the attacking players we have in the squad we always feel we are going to score goals.

"That makes it even more important for us to keep them out at the other end."

McGregor, who has impressed in every game since making his first start of the season at Sunderland in late November, was hopeful of retaining his place alongside David May at the heart of the defence for today's trip to Crystal Palace.

And he remains confident in the team's ability to string together a run of results that will ease fears of being dragged into a relegation dog-fight.

He added: "We've won the first game in 2004 and now we need to go on a run that will take us away from that drop zone.

"We know we have to build on the win and put together an unbeaten run of five or six games on the bounce.

"We've shown earlier in the season we are capable of doing that and the defensive part of our game has always been the big question for the team.

"But if we all dig in and produce some more clean sheets, we are going to go and win games because we have the talent going forward to score goals."