MICHAEL Duff believes this season’s Championship is the toughest he has ever experienced.

The defender – Burnley’s longest serving outfield player – has had a watching brief for much of the campaign, battling back from a knee injury while the Clarets struggle for consistency.

But with only 12 points separating sixth and 22nd place in the table, Duff feels they aren’t the only side finding it hard to hit form.

Saturday’s opponents Leeds United, for example, dropped out of the top six last month and went on to lose 5-0 at home to Blackpool, who Burnley had beaten 3-1 in the previous game.

“It’s said every week about this league but it is tight,” said Duff, who arrived at Turf Moor in the summer of 2004 in a £30,000 move from Cheltenham Town.

“Derby went 2-0 up against Peterborough, and they come back and won 3-2. It seems to happen a lot. It’s probably the hardest league I’ve experienced in eight years at Burnley. I think this is the toughest league we’ve had.”

Nevertheless, the 32-year-old is ready for a return to action following his August injury and, after coming through last week’s reserve game and some intensive first team training sessions so far this week, is hoping to offer a defensive boost to manager Eddie Howe for Saturday’s visit of Leeds United.

The Clarets went into the international break with back-to-back defeats, but Duff expects a brighter forecast if they can get back to basics.

“It’s a funny little period at the minute because I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom,” he said.

“Bristol City’s the first away game I’ve been to (since the injury) so I can only talk about the home games. I don’t know what it is at the minute but we’ve got a funny little habit of playing well and then conceding at bad times, and we haven’t maybe converted some chances that we’ve been creating.

“It’s not like we’re getting played off the park by anybody but we seem to be up one week and down the next.”

Burnley have been criticised for being too quiet on the pitch this season, but vocal Duff hopes to bring a voice to the backline, as well as experience.

“The position I play I can see everything so it is easier for me to see things, but it’s different characters,” he said.

“I don’t know whether it is because I’m a little bit older or what but I find talking helps me concentrate as well, so it’s as much for me as it is for anybody else.”