Burnley moved into second place in the fight for automatic promotion from the Championship with a 1-0 win over Oxford United on Tuesday night, overtaking Sheffield United.
Impressively, another clean sheet for the Clarets means they have now gone an astonishing nine games without conceding a league goal and have just allowed nine goals in the Championship this season.
Scott Parker’s team missed several crucial chances to win the game, which remains a source of concern.
Scoring goals is a significant concern, and the introduction of some attacking talent in the January transfer market may eventually solve the problem, but as things are, Burnley fans understand how critical it is that they stop relying on that outstanding backline to help their club win games.
Clarets fans screamed ‘We’ve scored a goal!’ but it was actually Oxford’s Michal Helik who pushed the ball into his own net.
Four 0-0 draws at home had preceded their most recent encounter at Turf Moor, and they were coming off of another away to Portsmouth over the weekend.
Parker now admits that Burnley’s goal-scoring difficulties might be attributed entirely to his attacking players.
“Maybe it’s a psychological element a little bit because of the general noise around it, human nature is sometimes maybe that noise gravitates a bit and snowballs, that maybe could be the case,” Parker remarked following his team’s victory.
“We obviously missed some nice opportunities. I’m more thrilled that we had those big opportunities in the proper places; that belief in ourselves, not hiding, and putting yourself on the line to miss that opportunity is critical for me as a coach. “We did that, but we didn’t execute.”
Leeds United is still at the top of the Championship, however Burnley has a goal difference advantage over the Blades due to having played one more game. The Blades welcome Pompey to Bramall Lane on Saturday, while the Clarets do not play again until Wednesday, when they visit Hull on the same night that United face Middlesbrough.
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