Burnley boss Scott Parker never doubted his players would maintain their intensity despite promotion having already been achieved.
The Clarets emphatically boosted their Sky Bet Championship title hopes by hammering QPR 5-0 in their penultimate match of the season.
It moved them to the top of the table, three points ahead of Leeds, although the Yorkshire side, who are at home to Bristol City on Monday, have a superior goal difference and know winning their final two matches would almost certainly seal the title. Both teams could finish the campaign with 100 points.
Burnley are now unbeaten in 32 league games, have lost just twice this season and conceded only 15 goals.
And with their main objective achieved, they showed no sign of easing up against sorry Rangers, which came as no surprise to Parker.
“There was no doubt about that whatsoever. I consistently say about this group that they just keep coming,” he said.
“Obviously my job is to remind them at times, but it’s got to the stage where that takes care of itself really.
“It’s probably easy in these moments to maybe take your foot off a little bit, with part of it being done, but full focus on us trying to win this league now and I thought that performance showed that.
“We always had belief. There’s always noise and people wanting to be critical, but I always had belief and the team always had belief. We’ve had rock-solid belief and knew we had quality.
“I’m always telling the lads that with determination, commitment and rock-solid belief you get to where you need to get to – and that’s been proved over the course of this year.”
Zian Flemming and Jeremy Sarmiento both scored twice and Josh Cullen also netted in a totally one-sided game at Loftus Road.
“I thought we were incredible. It was arguably one of our best performances,” said Parker, whose team will end the campaign with a home match against Millwall next Saturday.
“One left now. We’ll go into that game in front of our home fans and try to replicate this performance.”
QPR boss Marti Cifuentes, meanwhile, insisted he is happy at the club despite recent speculation about his future.
Rangers fans, not for the first time this season, made their support of the Spaniard clear despite a woeful performance from their team, who have avoided relegation despite an injury-plagued campaign.
“I said before that as long as I’m wanted, I’m very happy,” Cifuentes said.
“The way the fans have been supporting me, it makes me feel that I want to give them something back even more than the last two seasons.
“In any case I am very calm about the job I have done and the fact that we have achieved what were difficult targets.
“I’m an ambitious person in the sense that I always push myself. I always want to improve. I have a contract and I want to keep improving. I enjoy my job here, enjoy English football, and am ready for more.
“I’ve said that the support from the fans that I’ve got this season, in very difficult moments, is something that I have never seen before and will stay with me forever.
“That’s why I’m very sad today. Today hurts. It doesn’t define what this team has done this season and it’s very sad to finish that way.”
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