MARTIN Paterson is hoping for a strong end to the season, to set him up for what he believes will be his best year.

The striker announced his comeback from another injury-ravaged campaign with his first goal of the calendar year, in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with West Ham.

But he believes there will be more to come in 2012/13.

“I think for me this year’s going to a build-up to next year, my best football will come next year,” said the 24-year-old.

“It’s hard to come back from setbacks and be the player you were before you got injured.

“I’m very close to being 100 per cent now. I think in a couple of games I will be.

“It’s a shame for me that there are only a few games left after that, but from a selfish point of view I’m looking to get as many goals as I can to the end of the year, and then kick on next year to compete to be in the starting line-up again.

“It’s frustrating for me that I’ve got to build myself back up, but I feel I’m at the level that I should be.”

Burnley’s third draw in four games, and seventh game without a win, kept them 10 points adrift of sixth place.

But Paterson stressed the importance of a positive end to the season, both personally and collectively, even if the play-offs are beyond them this year.

“We’ve got to play for a bit of pride and a bit of professionalism.

“The play-offs are probably out of reach now but we’ve got to have pride within ourselves to get as far as we can up the table,” said the Northern Ireland international, who was top scorer when the Clarets won promotion to the Premier League, via the play-offs, in 2009.

“As frustrating as it would be at the end saying, ‘we’ve missed out by six or seven points’, I’d rather that than 15-20.

“We’ve got to win as many games as we possibly can.

“I don’t think there’s any chance we’re going to ‘jack’ it in, I think we’re going to go out to win every game we can.”

And Paterson believes they showed a statement of their intent for much of Saturday’s 2-2 draw with West Ham, despite letting a 2-0 lead slip.

“It was frustrating to play well for 50 or 60 minutes and give them a little bit of momentum getting the goal, which has allowed them back into the game,” he said.

“If you look over the 90 minutes I thought we were the better team.

“In the second half they got momentum and looked the better team in a 20-minute spell.

“But over the course of the game I thought we were the better team.”