'That's us...' - Burnley boss Scott Parker fires promotion warning at Sunderland and Leeds United

Burnley manager Scott Parker has insisted that his side are ready to “put their foot down” as they look to kick on and beat the likes of Sunderland, Sheffield United, and Leeds United in the race for promotion from the Championship this season.

The Clarets are currently third in the table, three points ahead of the Black Cats with a game in hand, and five points adrift of the Blades in second place. Parker’s men did, however, bow out of the FA Cup on Saturday, suffering a sound 3-0 defeat at the hands of Preston North End.

And while the disappointment of that result means that Burnley are no longer in the running for a historic visit to Wembley, it does also mean that they can now focus fully on their efforts to secure an automatic promotion spot in the league.

Speaking after Saturday’s loss, Parker said: “That's us now, yeah. That's exactly where we are. One focus now. We're not in any of these cup competitions no more. There's only one focus. “Twelve games left now. Let's go and put our foot straight down to the floor and try and grind out as many points as we can to get us over this line. That's exactly what our aim is and that's exactly what we'll be doing.

“We're disappointed to be out of the cup, of course we are, but now let’s put our foot to the floor and let's see where we can take ourselves at the end of these next 12 games.”

When asked if he expects his side to bounce back from their cup exit, Parker added: “Oh yeah, for sure. I've said it too many times. Of course, it's a young group, but they're a together group. They're a group that react constantly in the right way and that's nothing that I don't expect now from us.

“We'll go over this game but as quickly as this game is done, we'll draw a quick line with a permanent pen right underneath it and we'll come back, reboot, see what we've done wrong and make sure that doesn't happen again, certainly when we're playing in games like this. Like I said, for the large part, we've been superb at that.”

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Parker added: “I always judge a human being on adversity to be quite honest with you and these players know that too well. Since the minute I've walked in here, the real test of a character is when someone gets a little jab on the nose or someone needs a little bit of support and what's the reaction we're going to get.

“These players will be under no illusions of the reaction we need to bring now after one defeat and like you just said the number it is so we'll regroup. I know my players and I know they'll come back and they'll give everything like they've done for the majority of this year.”

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