Scott Parker outlines key message to Burnley players ahead of West Ham six-pointer

The Clarets head to the capital looking to make a big statement in their fight against relegation in their final outing before the November international break.

At the 10-game mark, Burnley sit three points clear of the Hammers and the relegation zone.

A win in East London would stretch the gap to the bottom three to six points, while a defeat would draw them straight back in.

But at this early stage of the season, while acknowledging the importance of Saturday’s affair, Parker won’t be making any grandiose statements.

“It’s a big game,” he said.

"Like I always say, every game's big, but we’re playing against a side that have come off a very good result [against Newcastle United] as well.

“We understand the magnitude of the game as early as we are still in this season, but we go down there with a big amount of confidence and hopefully we're going to put in a good performance.”

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When asked what type of message he will deliver to his players given the significance of the game, Parker added: “I won’t mention it, to be honest with you – and it wouldn't be something that is remotely mentioned really.

"It's points where people go: ‘how far are they away?’ or ‘whether they go level or not’, but there’s no relevance. My main message will be that what do we need to do to win the game at the weekend? And that's the main focus and it's always been that, each game as it comes.”

The Clarets can certainly take heart from how they’ve performed in their previous six-pointers, having already beaten Sunderland, Leeds United and Wolves – three encounters that were all hyped up before the game.

While Burnley have yet to claim any points against the so-called bigger and better teams in the division, their record does suggest they can take points in the games that really matter in the fight for survival.

“We cab take great confidence from those games, for sure,” Parker said. “But I think we also take confidence from the majority of games this year.

“This is a young team that is constantly growing, constantly developing. While on some of those occasions we've not picked up results, there have been huge positives to take from them.

"But the games where we’ve needed to win, we've obviously got our points and got them on the board, so we're going into the weekend's game like we do every week to try and do that again.”

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