Burnley gained plaudits for their brand of positive, vibrant football at many points of the season.

But, paradoxically, they had one of the worst defensive records in the Championship – with only Southampton, Scunthorpe and Colchester conceding more.

Owen Coyle's side have shown they can be miserly too, particularly in the win at St Mary's last month, but clean sheets have been few and far between, and Caldwell feels the side have to learn when to open up, and when to keep things tight: "It's been a disappointing season with regards to how many goals we've lost, it's something I'm sure will be addressed and we'll try and improve on.

"I'm a defender, so I'm biased, but it's not just been a defensive thing, as in the four defenders and the goalies, or how many defenders there is, as it's been an inconsistent season as far as who has been picked at the back.

"It's a team ethos of defending and a togetherness, which we've shown magnificently recently at Southampton.

"At times we've been a little bit kamikaze and a bit open.

"That's the way we're trying to play though, to be exciting, but we need that happy medium between being exciting at the right times, and being quite tight and hard to beat when it matters, to get more clean sheets."

From his spell with Newcastle, Caldwell knows all about the philosophy that it doesn't matter how many the opposition score, you try and score one more.

The Magpies' defence has long been lambasted for conceding goals, with the likes of Jonathan Woodgate, Nikos Dabizas, Titus Bramble and Aaron Hughes seemingly unable to stop the flow, but Caldwell points out: "I played at Newcastle, where they need goals – they insist on it – and a lot of times the defenders took the flak for the fact the way the club and supporters demanded we play, because we had some fantastic defenders, top, top defenders.

"No matter who came to Newcastle when I was there, we seemed to leak goals.

"I think that's something to look at, but you can go full circle and end up playing a boring brand of football, which I don't think the gaffer would want.

"You have to look for a happy medium and stop conceding as many goals."

West Brom have been far from watertight in their title-winning season, susceptible to conceding from set plays , as Burnley showed both home and away against the Baggies, and Caldwell feels they are the barometer: "West Brom have been the outstanding team this season, and I felt they would be before the season started.

"They have top, Premier League players, internationals, and have been superb.

"I felt they should have won it comfortably, but it's such a difficult league to win games in consistently.

"But they've lost a few goals too, probably because they are so good attacking-wise."

But in a season that has ended in disappointment, the Scotland international believes there has been a number of positives – none more so than the form of Player of the Year Wade Elliott: "I don't think Wade has fulfilled his potential yet in the Championship – I think he can go higher and play in the Premier League.

"Hopefully that will be with Burnley, but I'm sure the Premier League clubs will be watching and keeping an eye on him in the next few years.
"He's a very, very good player.

"He's not going to look out of place in any company, his level of consistency has been excellent.

"But he'll say it's a team game, and we support him well as a team, play to his strengths, and he delivers by laying on chances for whichever forward is in that position.

"We're lucky that we have good players and everybody is pretty comfortable on the ball, taking it and passing and moving.

"That's the theory behind our game, and always has been since I came to Burnley, and definitely the case now with the gaffer in charge.

"It's a big thing about the way we play that the wingers receive the ball and are positive and attack the full back and hopefully either score a goal or put the ball on a plate for somebody."