Burnley boss Sean Dyche has admitted that his side face a "big challenge" in their attempt to secure promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
The Clarets dropped out of the top flight last season after taking just 33 points from their 38 games.
Only eight of the last 36 teams relegated into the Championship have made an immediate return to the big time - a statistic Dyche believes simply highlights the size of the task he faces.
"We know the challenges. I'm not playing it down. And there is my fact-backer – eight teams [from 36]," he is quoted as saying by the Lancashire Telegraph. "It's a big challenge. It's not an easy task and it's right there in front of us. You don't come out of [the Premier League] and then miraculously go back up. It's not that easy.
"We, I feel, are strong and we have a chance at it, of course. But the stats have backed what I was thinking. I'm just telling it how it is. There's no proving people wrong, we look to prove ourselves right that we are to be reckoned with. There's always a reality to how I work, and there's a positive reality.
"I think our fans have become more keen-eyed to it all after going up, the challenge we had to get up and the challenge we had in going up, and then the challenge of the Premier League. The fans I talk to say it's going to be a tough division, and the stats show that."
Burnley are currently 13th in the Championship table, having won one of their opening four fixtures.
Daniel Lewis
