Brilliant Mansfield pile pressure on Parker – is his time up at Burnley?
Losing to the 13th team in English football’s third tier represents a new low in Burnley’s season, just as renewed optimism is beginning to creep in.
Burnley’s remarkable 3-2 come-from-behind victory at Crystal Palace on Wednesday was their first win in 16 Premier League matches. The darkness began to dissipate slightly.
Parker’s team showed real fight and spirit at Selhurst Park, making the decision to make nine changes to his squad for the visit of Mansfield all the more surprising.
“There will always be questions about it when you don’t make it to the next round [team selection] but I don’t think that’s the main factor today,” Parker told BBC Sport.
“We had a small deficit in the last moments. That’s where we fell very short today.”
Burnley are not the first team to make changes for a cup match against inferior opposition in the Premier League, nor will they be the last.
But having been knocked out of the League Cup by Cardiff City in September, the FA Cup was fans’ only chance to distract themselves from impending relegation.
“The changes he made are disgraceful. Play your strongest team. He made nine changes and the second half was disgraceful,” former Burnley defender David Unsworth told BBC Radio East Lancashire.
“It’s a shameful afternoon for Burnley. This gives the owner the right to make a decision now. He needs to listen to the fans, they are not happy.”
“For the first time I witnessed the booing and discontent of all the fans of the stadium. The owner needs to make a decision.”
Chairman Alan Pace, leader of the club’s owner ALK Capital, is also not the most popular person at Turf Moor at the moment.
He angered fans in an interview with BBC Football Focus this week when he said fans’ concerns came from “people who are just playing this game on a computer somewhere”.
He went on to compare those same fans to little three-year-olds throwing a tantrum.
Pace used Saturday’s show notes to clarify his remarks, writing, “I didn’t mean for my words to upset, but I meant what I was trying to say, which is that just because some people are upset doesn’t mean things are dire and hopeless.”
Many Burnley fans hope Pace will take charge during Parker’s tenure, but the former Premier League midfielder said he is confident in his own position at the club.
Parker told BBC Sport: “I’m very comfortable with my position at the moment. We lost a football match today against a team we should have beaten.”
“We had a lot of chances. Of course you always evaluate a result and today is a bad day. Both the team and I are subject to criticism for that.”
