Burnley manager Scott Parker insisted missing out on the Sky Bet Championship title on goal difference would do nothing to dent his pride after the Clarets ended their record-breaking promotion season with a 3-1 win over Millwall.
Burnley fell behind to an early Mihailo Ivanovic goal but Josh Brownhill soon cancelled that out and added a late third after Jaidon Anthony put Burnley in front.
It looked as though Burnley would take the title until Leeds scored a stoppage-time winner at Plymouth to leave the Clarets as the first side in English football history to finish with 100 points but not be crowned champions.
“I’m absolutely delighted,” Parker said. “The main objective was to get three points and end the season on 100 points. Two defeats all season, 33 games unbeaten, 16 goals conceded, that’s all I could ask for really.
“If you’d said to us at any point that 100 points this year wouldn’t get you the title we’d all be thinking, ‘no chance’. To lose the title on goal difference is a little disappointing but I won’t let that overshadow a remarkable season.”
Burnley have set a new mark for the stingiest defence in English football history this term, conceding only 16 goals in 46 league games, bettering Liverpool who conceding 16 across 42 matches in 1978-79.
Parker was a part of the third best defence on the list going by goals per game – the 2004-05 Chelsea side who conceded 15 in 38 games.
“I didn’t play a lot in that team!” Parker said with a laugh. “I’d like to say it was a pivotal role but I was probably watching from afar…
“We’ve built our game on that foundation, it’s given us a foothold in most games and in the end it became contagious, a badge of honour on our chest. You see in this team a desire and a passion to keep clean sheets and it put us in good stead.
“It’s been our bedrock and hopefully it’s been ingrained in us as a habit. Of course we go up and level where the tests will come thick and fast, we understand that, but after coming out of a big season where we’ve been pretty remarkable defensively we’ll see where that takes us.”
Millwall came into the game having won five of their last six to open up a shot at a first play-off appearance since 2002, and were left to wonder what might have been after Josh Coburn’s shocking miss late in the first half that would have put them back in front.
George Honeyman’s low cross from the right put it on a plate for the striker, but he somehow hit a post from a couple of yards out.
“That was the moment,” Alex Neil said. “You see games and those key moments decide big games. If we could have taken that second goal that would have been a double setback for them.”
Millwall ultimately fell two points shy of the top six but Neil, who took charge in December, has been encouraged by the last few months.
“Pride is the overriding emotion when you look at what the lads have turned out these last game and the big wins we’ve got,” he said.
“We took it until the last 45 minutes of the season and we can be proud of our work since January.”
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