Scott Parker issues Burnley promotion warning ahead of Swansea City challenge as Sheffield United forced to watch on

The Clarets are up first, making the trip to South Wales before promotion rivals Sheffield United face a derby encounter at Hillsborough the following day.

A victory for Scott Parker’s men will see them leapfrog the Blades and move into second place.

Standing in their way is a Swansea side under the caretaker tutelage of Alan Sheehan, who took over on an interim basis after Luke Williams was sacked last month.

Sheehan has taken charge of four games, winning two, drawing one and losing the other, coming away to Watford in midweek.

While Parker only has a small sample size to go off, the Clarets boss has a decent idea of what to expect from the Swans.

“I've got a decent read,” he said. “They’ve definitely changed a little bit in terms of the way they play and the way they go about things.

“I think there's probably been a bit of a shift, but there's not a massive volume of games to go on.

“There are some clear differences, but as always, we'll try and prep the best we can. We just need to bring our best version of ourselves at the weekend to get a result.”

Burnley missed the opportunity to temporarily move top of the table on Tuesday night when they were held to a 1-1 draw against West Brom.

With Sheffield United also drawing, the Clarets remain in third, two points adrift of second place.

Regardless of results elsewhere, Parker won’t be getting sidetracked.

“I'll always stay balanced on the approach and that isn’t forced, that isn’t worked on,” he said.

“It's just that my experience is in this division and my experience is in what we do. That focus will always be each game and we focus on trying to win as many as we can.

“We have nine games left now and like I keep saying to every single person, you need to win as many as you can. If we do that, we'll be, come the end of the season, we'll be where we need to be.

“We can't focus on missed opportunities, someone else dropping points, they've lost the weekend and so on.

“Every single week in this division, something pops up and you're either ecstatic or you're on the floor and that's due to other outcomes from elsewhere. That can't be the case.

“Every game we play…we played against top opposition the other night in a very, very good West Brom side and we came out with a draw.

“There were a lot of good things. There were some poor things on our behalf and these are the dynamics we’re in.”