Burnley boss Scott Parker on the fascinating mind techniques he uses to deal with ‘strain’ of promotion battle

The Clarets enjoyed a perfect weekend as they rose to the top of the Championship table with just six games to go thanks to a hard-fought 2-1 win at Coventry City.

Parker’s side had to come from behind to claim the three points after conceding a controversial offside goal after just six minutes.

Elsewhere, Sheffield United and Leeds United both dropped points, allowing Burnley to leapfrog both into top spot.

It’s been nip and tuck between the top three for much of the season and it’s still likely to go right down to the wire.

Parker has consistently claimed he takes no notice of what Burnley’s promotion rivals are doing, opting to focus entirely on the things he’s able to control.

When asked how he deals with the strain of such an intense promotion battle, Parker explained: “It's a strain if it consumes you. It's a strain, an emotional strain and a drain on you if you get emotionally involved in that.

“Hence why I'm very consistent in what I'm saying, that I'm never going to get involved in that.

“I can't control what Leeds do this week. I can't control what Sheffield United do. It's an absolute reliance on me. I walk in after a game of football. It is what it is.

“All I know is that if we win enough games between now and the end of the season, we'll be promoted. That's what I know.

“Over the course of this, the two seasons I've been in this division, that is exactly how I've gone about it. It's worked, so I'm not going to change that.

“You jump on the rollercoaster and the emotions of: ‘oh, they've won, that means this’, all these things go through your head, it's a drain, it becomes stressful. I'm never going to do that.

“I try and spell that out to every single one of my players. Coventry, we come here, this is what we need to do and win the game and we've done that. We move on, it’s irrelevant what they [Sheffield United and Leeds] do.”

When asked how he’s able to ignore what’s going on elsewhere, Parker joked: “Just turn that phone off, really.

“But yeah, I train my mind. It’s been 15 years of training my mind. I’ve spoken about it in interviews before, I speak to someone on a weekly basis in terms of controlling things and controlling my mind and not getting emotionally involved in certain things and certainly not getting into the things that I can't control.

“All I control is trying to be the best person I can be to the team and try and give them a stability that they can go and execute and be the best they can be.

“I hope I try and do that with them constantly on a daily basis, leading into games. That's my constant message. That's the main focus for them.”