Scott Parker described Burnley’s defence as “nothing short of sensational” after beating Blackburn 1-0 in the East Lancashire derby.
The Championship’s meanest defence was at it again and achieved this in the face of a white-hot derby atmosphere where the very presence of away players brought boos from the home fans.
In a game of fine margins, the Clarets restricted Rovers to one shot on target and, with an away record that reads five conceded all season, it was likely one chance would be enough.
So it proved as Bashir Humphreys’ left-wing cross was brilliantly headed home on the hour by Zian Flemming for his fourth of the campaign.
They dealt with everything Blackburn threw at them thereafter to make it five wins on the bounce at the home of their fiercest rivals and remarkably, this is their ninth clean sheet on the road and 17th overall in the league.
And Parker lauded his side’s mentality, saying: “I explained to the players over the last couple of days that I’ve played in many a derby and sometimes they do bring a different game. I didn’t expect the game to look any different to how it looked today.
“I always felt it was going to be a bit of a scrappy game with the sheer emotion of what the game brought. I needed calm heads and show our quality in certain moments and manage the game.
“Mentality was always going to be a major factor and there’s something about this group. For such a young group that when they need to go to places that are difficult to go to, they go there.
“We had quality today, our one bit of quality. The game was always going to be defined in one moment. We execute, lovely cross, Flemming scores. After that, no denying, we have to go to places that are uncomfortable and to a man this group, subs included, people on the bench, they go there.
“What this team has done defensively this year has been nothing short of sensational. I get the defensive side is probably not the most glamorous. It’s the bedrock and foundation of any team really. This team has real traits of one which wants to protect their goal. It is a badge of honour for us.
“We leave another away game with a clean sheet and it gives us a foundation to win games. That was evident today. It was a fine margin game and what got us that was a clean sheet.”
Blackburn’s best chance came through Lewis Baker’s late header but though John Eustace was disappointed, he reiterated the need to strengthen his squad.
“I was very proud of the efforts of the boys. We went toe to toe with a very good team and good squad of players. The effort of the group was very good,” he said.
“It’s a local derby, I thought there was going to be one goal in it. Both teams are defensively very good. I was disappointed with the manner we conceded. We switched off from a cross, I think it was their first effort on goal. It is what it is.
“I think when you look at the two teams, and if you look at the three games that we’ve played against the three teams in the top three or four in the last couple of weeks, I think we’ve been very good. You can see we need help in the squad.
“We need to keep improving and get players back from injury as quickly as we can. There’s possibly seven that would have started today that weren’t available.”
