James Tarkowski is confident Burnley can end their away day misery to ensure a successful season after coming within a whisker of a first victory on the road.
The Clarets, who have taken just a single point from their nine Premier League away games to date and went out of the EFL Cup at Accrington, would have edged past Sunderland in Saturday's FA Cup third round clash on Wearside had Tarkowski's 75th-minute header not come back off the post.
Ultimately, Sean Dyche's men had to settle for a 0-0 draw and a replay, but the central defender believes it is only a matter of time before they start doing to teams on their own pitch what they have been doing to them at Turf Moor.
Tarkowski told Clarets Player: "We'd like to improve away from home, but especially at home, we've picked up some really good points against some good teams and halfway through, I don't think we can complain too much.
"The away form does need to improve a little bit, but performances have got better more recently without the results coming for us. But the results will come if the performances keep coming like that."
If Burnley finished the stronger at the Stadium of Light, they did so in a drab affair which rarely threatened to provide a decisive result.
Three long-range Jack Rodwell efforts were as good as it got for the home side, while keeper Vito Mannone's early save from Sam Vokes and a late flurry were all Burnley offered in response.
Tarkowski, one of six men drafted into the starting line-up along with returning midfielder Joey Barton, said: "In the first half, they had a lot of the ball, little chances, a few long-range efforts, but in the second half, we came into it a bit more, had the better of the chances and probably could have won it in the end, really.
"But we'll look forward to the replay and getting a result then."
Sunderland boss David Moyes pulled no punches in his assessment of the game, describing it as "poor", although he was at least able to console himself with a positive result which means the Black Cats have lost just one of their last six home games in all competitions.
Moyes said: "We're disappointed that we didn't get through, but we're still in the hat at the moment."
If nothing else, the result was a significant improvement on the result when the sides met in the league at Turf Moor seven days earlier, when Sunderland found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-1 scoreline.
That was due in part to an impressive display by Manchester City loanee Jason Denayer, who lined up in central defence rather than midfield.
Denayer said: "I feel okay there and I like it, so it's okay.
"It was a difficult game because it was really physical, a lot of long balls and on the second balls, you never know what is going to happen, but I think we defended well. A clean sheet was important for us."
Source: PA
