Scott Parker on Burnley's friendly win at Huddersfield Town, youngsters and Tommy McDermott
Scott Parker was delighted with the impression Burnley’s youngsters made during his side’s pre-season victory over Huddersfield Town.
Despite starting with a strong XI, it was two of the club’s academy prospects that won the game for the Clarets.
Tommy McDermott glanced home a deft header seconds after coming on as a substitute before Joe Westley made sure of the 2-0 victory late on.
All in all, Parker was pleased with the day’s work in what was Burnley’s first public pre-season outing.
“It was a good runout for us,” he told the Burnley Express.
“Obviously we’re still probably only midway through our pre-season and I think Huddersfield are a bit more ahead of us. But I thought we showed some nice bits today.
“We looked pretty promising really, so I liked us today. There’s still a lot more work to be done, but overall I’m pleased.
“We picked up no injuries today and got a good performance, a solid performance again.”
Making seven changes on the 70-minute mark, and leading by only the one goal, Burnley could have easily crumbled late on when the only ‘senior’ player left in their team was goalkeeper Max Weiss, who himself is only 21.
But if anything, the Clarets grew stronger and could easily have added more goals to their tally.
“They did [make an impression], they've done really, really well,” Parker added. “That was a real positive. The young boys coming on for 20 minutes, they've done incredibly well.
“I thought the second-half was a lot better from us. I thought we controlled the game more, looked more of a threat.
“We had our moments in the first-half, but certainly in the second-half, we changed a couple of little things and the boys have done well in terms of executing it.”
McDermott caught the eye especially, not only with his goal but with his array of passing and his confidence on the ball.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen the 20-year-old in action, having featured in cup competitions under Parker last season.
“He was really, really good. Yes, he's done really well. I really like Tommy,” the Clarets boss said.
“He's been with us, a diamond of a boy, keen as anything. He wants to learn, wants to keep improving. He's done really well today, along with the others.”
The Huddersfield win came as another Burnley XI played out a 2-2 friendly draw with Shrewsbury Town as part of a pre-season double header.
Marcus Edwards netted both goals in a team that also included the likes of Axel Tuanzebe, Josh Cullen and Ashley Barnes.
“We've got a lot of numbers as you can obviously see, there's a lot of players here,” Parker said.
“We just felt that we needed a couple of games just to give players minutes, which is what we’ll also look to do next week [Burnley will play a behind closed doors game as well as travelling to face Stoke City].
"Rather than people missing out, we decided to have the two games as we need to get everyone up to speed to put us in a good place for the start of the season.”