‘Attack wins you games, defence wins you titles,” was the old Alex Ferguson adage but Burnley would happily accept automatic promotion. They sit second in the Championship thanks to the excellence of their back four and goalkeeper, who are on their way to break records, but a Premier League return is all Turf Moor wants.
Under Scott Parker, Burnley have conceded nine goals in 26 league matches, collecting 17 clean sheets. Sunderland, one of two teams to have beaten Burnley, arrive on Friday night wondering how to break through the brick wall again.
James Trafford has 16 shutouts and is aiming to surpass the Burnley great Jimmy Strong, who kept 19 in a 42-game season in 1946-47. The stingiest defence in Football League history was Port Vale 71 years ago, when they let in 21, and if Burnley maintain this rate of conceding, they will end with 16 in the against column.
Burnley are yet to concede twice in the league and have secured eight victories by one goal, aided by an incredible team spirit. Often there is a fine margin when a team are reliant on keeping on the opposition out but Burnley are perfecting the balancing act.
What’s the secret? “Hard work and a lot of analysis and information fed to us by the coaching staff and on the training pitch,” says the centre-back Joe Worrall. “It’s something that we pride ourselves on.
“It’s not just the defence or Traff in goal. It’s the whole team. If you watch clips of our games the amount of times we get 11 men behind the ball so quickly is a credit to the fitness and the structure. You give the ball away, you sprint back, it’s as simple as that. It’s well-drilled into us by the manager.”
Worrall has not featured as much as he envisaged after signing from Nottingham Forest last summer but injury and the form of CJ Egan‑Riley and Maxime Estève has kept him out. Instead, the defender, who won promotion from the Championship with Forest, has been given front-row seats to the most resilient show in the country.
“There’s no prima donnas,” he says, “but we’ve got a certain confidence and arrogance about the way we play and the record shows that – we’ve been very consistent. But at the same time it does help when we’ve got players who can do things with the ball as well.
“I’ve been in teams where we’ve had good defensive partnerships and records but that’s only shone through a bit because we’ve had to defend all the time. When you don’t have to defend all the time and are facing one or two shots a game and have a keeper who has been in the England squad at the age of 21 behind you – that helps also.”
In the Premier League, with Vincent Kompany in charge, Burnley were porous, often causing their own downfall by trying and failing to play out from the back. Despite the errors, Kompany never changed philosophy but Parker is more pragmatic. The former England midfielder is about precision and has something to prove after his time at Bournemouth and Club Brugge.
Egos have needed to be rebuilt after the chastening season in the Premier League. Trafford was bought in and labelled as a future England No 1 but struggled in the top flight and was dropped. Now he is thriving, finding calm in the Championship, having previously skipped the division after a loan with League One Bolton.
“He’s saved a lot of important shots this season and gained us some decent amount of points,” says Worrall. “He’s always happy and he’s quite endearing as a goalkeeper, a different kind of profile to what outfield players are. Burnley is a great place for him to be at this moment; he’s someone who can achieve great things with us this season and hopefully beyond.
“If you look at England goalkeepers, he’s up-and-coming, he’s got a real good chance for the future of earning caps and he’ll know that as well. It’s an exciting time. I wish I was in his position so I could start again and have a good go.”
The favoured lineup has been a steady back five of Trafford, Connor Roberts, Egan-Riley, Estève and, on the left, Bashir Humphreys. The goalkeeper and centre-backs are 22 and Humphreys is a year younger but Burnley have plenty of wise heads to call upon when needed.
In their last league outing they defeated their local rivals Blackburn 1-0 at Ewood Park. “The way that we defended our box the last five minutes was incredible,” says Worrall. “Their team must have played thousands of professional games; CJ’s played 50, Max probably about the same.
“Everyone has to start somewhere but if you’d have said: ‘Who’s played the games, who’s done what in their careers?’ you wouldn’t be saying: ‘He’s 22 and he’s only played two years professionally.’ That’s just a sign of how we are as a team and it’s not just those players that are playing well, it’s the collective of the group.”
There are 20 games to go but promotion is becoming visible for Burnley and that will reinforce their desire to keep the door shut in order to open the one marked “Premier League”.
