Scott Parker on Burnley's 'tough' Watford test, unbeaten runs, Tom Cleverley and home form

Tom Cleverley’s side sit in seventh place in the Championship, level on points with the play-offs, following a run of six games without defeat.

The Clarets, meanwhile, will be looking to move back into the top two after avoiding defeat for eight games on the spin.

Back at home where they’ve yet to be beaten this season, Parker will be confident of picking up another positive result to build on last week’s comeback win against Norwich City.

But Burnley’s head coach knows his side will have to be at their best to topple a resurgent Hornets outfit.

“They’re a good side and this is going to be a tough game,” Parker said. “They’ve got some individual quality and they’re on the back of a good run of games where they’ve been unbeaten and picked up a positive result at the weekend.

“They’ve got a good young coach in Tom who has done very, very well, so this game will be dictated to on fine margins because this is a good side with individual qualities and a real team unit.

“As always we need to be prepared to the best we possibly can and try and put our imprint on the game and cause them as many problems as we can.”

While Watford are in good form, the majority of their success has come at Vicarage Road, while they’ve only won two of their 10 away games so far this season.

Nevertheless, Parker has still been impressed by the work of Cleverley, a player he knows well having been part of England squads with him back in 2013.

“I know Tom a bit,” Parker said. “He’s done a brilliant job. He’s got the opportunity and went on a run and got the job as a result. He’s doing really well there.

“I’m looking forward to seeing him and as always I’ll be wishing him all the best. He’s done well.”

While Burnley have yet to taste defeat on home turf, they have encountered difficulties facing sides that come and sit back.

That was very much the case last time out at Turf Moor against Derby County, where the Clarets were held to a frustrating stalemate.

Parker said: “It definitely can [be challenging], that’s been clear maybe with some of the teams coming to Turf Moor with a different ambition, which is maybe to shut the door in certain moments.

“In some of those moments we’ve struggled and we need to improve on that, but we’re still unbeaten at home and we’re still nudging away.

“There are probably teams coming to the Turf a little bit different to when we go away from home, where teams want to come and attack us or certainly want to get into the game a bit more. But we’ll keep working on that.”

Elsewhere in the fight for automatic promotion, Sunderland host Norwich, Leeds face managerless Oxford United and leaders Sheffield United travel to Cardiff City.