Scott Parker blasts lack of belief during Burnley's 'powderpuff' display against Brighton
Scott Parker accused his side of showing a lack of belief during their “powderpuff” defeat to Brighton.
The Clarets made it 11 games without a win after meekly surrendering to a 2-0 defeat at the Amex in their first encounter of 2026.
While Burnley at least performed well in defeat to Newcastle in midweek, that certainly wasn’t the case on the south coast as Parker’s side produced a passive display, where they failed to land a glove on the Seagulls.
“Hugely disappointed,” Parker admitted afterwards.
“That’s probably the first time I looked at the team and thought it lacked belief. I didn't feel for one second it was a team or a group that ever believed that they could come here and get a result and that is hugely disappointing.
“It’s something we definitely have to address. Only three days ago, we played against Newcastle, we don't get a result, we lose the game, but there were some real key things that stood out to us all.
“You can lose football matches, of course you can, but there's ways of losing and today I just felt we looked at times powderpuff and lacked a real belief in terms of coming here and trying to get something.”
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With Parker’s squad depleted by injuries and AFCON absences, and the side now without a win in 70 days, there’s a big danger of heads going down.
“That's the biggest thing and it's always something I've been conscious of,” Parker added.
“Like I've said to you before, the run's the run. But you need to bring a certain something about you as a group and you can lose football matches in this division, certainly the team we're going to be, that may be the case.
“Today what concerns me, what angers me, frustrates me and makes me hugely disappointed was we didn't show that. We just rolled over.
“We got on a plane yesterday, rocked up here today and just accepted that we weren’t ever really going to make a dent on Brighton. We made it very easy for them to get a result.”
Parker added: “I'm the one who's pretty calm, I'm the one who's a realist and I'm the one who is always reflecting on us as a group.
“I never go over the top in certain situations and certainly in this run, what we've had at times, while people will always be hugely critical because you're just looking at a result, there's been some huge positives.
“Today, that wasn't the case and we deserve, I deserve, the team deserve, individually, the criticism that will come our way and I've expressed that to the group.”
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