Wise, a quick-tempered terrier of a midfielder during his playing days at Wimbledon and Chelsea, did his best to portray calm after another nail-biting finish at Elland Road.

Leeds hung on to Matt Heath's towering first-half header to bounce back from a damaging Easter Monday defeat at Colchester when anything other than three points would have left them staring at relegation with three games to go. But after another tense finish Wise insisted he was not feeling the strain.

He said: "No, I'm fine, seriously. Gus (Poyet) is a bit erratic as you see, but no I'm fine.

"You have to try to keep your wits about you a little bit and not cave in. I'm not one to cave in anyway."

Leeds dominated the first half against a Burnley side that looked anything but one of the Coca-Cola Championship's form teams.

The Clarets had won their previous three matches, but Leeds should have wrapped the game up in the first half.

Frazer Richardson saw his thundering 30-yard volley rebound off the crossbar soon after Heath had broken the deadlock and Burnley goalkeeper Brian Jensen then kept out Richard Cresswell's header in brilliant fashion.

Leeds remain in the bottom three but moved level on points with Hull who drew with Colchester, while Barnsley and Leicester, who lost, are two points better off. Bottom two Luton and Southend both suffered home defeats.

Wise said: "We've pulled Hull closer and also now I think Leicester are two points in front of us as well. It's interesting.

"It's been down to the players. It would have been easy to go flat (after defeat at Colchester), but they showed they were up for it, ready for it and they're having a real bash at it.

"One thing I can say is I can't fault their commitment and character for what they've done.

"It's taken us a long time to try to sort this situation out, a long time, but we're gradually getting there. We'll have to wait and see."

Wise quickly shifted his focus to next Saturday's trip to former club Southampton, who still have plenty to do to secure a play-off spot.

He added: "I'm looking forward to it. I think they got beaten today, so it's a massive game for them. Expectations there were very high at the start of the season to get promotion.

"They've got enough quality there to be in the top two to be honest, so they may be in a false position where they are."

Burnley manager Steve Cotterill conceded his players left him frustrated after the first period, but insisted his side had been in command after the break.

Cotterill said: "The second half we dominated. I don't think they got in our half hardly in the second half.

"But that's probably going to happen, especially if they get their noses in front they're not going to gamble too much at the end.

"But it was frustrating in the first half because we didn't do the things we did in the second.

"We looked as if we'd had a few results and it was a sigh of relief for us in the first period.

"But after half-time we were a lot better and played with more zip, a bit more devilment, but not quite enough."

Cotterill conceded his side had found it difficult to create any openings due to Leeds' determined defending.

"Part of that was decent defending by them, but you would be right with that assessment.

"But had we played like that for the full 90 minutes they wouldn't have got near our goal to score in the first place."