Scott Parker's reaction to Burnley's relegation following defeat to Man City

It comes after his Clarets side put up a spirited fight against Manchester City tonight, only to lose 1-0 to Erling Haaland’s early strike.

With Burnley needing to win to prolong their survival hopes, the club’s fate is now officially sealed - as they go down to a third straight relegation from this level.

“I’m obviously disappointed with the confirmation of us being relegated,” Parker said afterwards.

“But I'm immensely proud of the team. I thought the performance tonight was probably everything that this group has represented for large parts of this year.

“While the results have probably not been what we all wanted, I think you see a group out there that was absolutely foot to the floor and left everything on the field.

“We can be critical and didn't take our moments tonight, but this team has been through a hell of a lot this year and there's been a lot of disappointment. There's been a lot of adversity with what they’ve faced.

“Coming into today's game with the jeopardy that was on it against a team like Man City, and them scoring after four minutes, it probably spoke volumes of this group in terms of what they are.

“I guess some may be critical of that [Parker being proud of the team], but the bigger vision for me is this group has given absolutely everything.

“Where we can be critical is we've just fallen short a little bit on quality. But for sure, they've absolutely given everything.”

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After a shaky start, Burnley did well to limit City to few clear-cut chances, but were unable to take advantage of the chances they did create - with Zian Flemming in particular guilty of two big first-half misses.

But Parker only had positive words to say about his side’s performance as they went toe to toe with their title challenging opponents.

“Overall I thought we were superb,” he added. “You're Burnley playing against Man City who are going for the title.

“I felt that we were right in the game. The chances that we created here tonight, we just didn't manage to execute.

“Like I always say, I'm never going to be critical of this team, never, ever, ever for a lack of quality or missing certain moments.

“That was a group of men that just literally have given everything, and for what they've been through, for what was on the line tonight, they did exactly that again.

“I'm sad and I'm upset, and I'm disappointed with the way the season's gone, of course, and tonight brings a curtain down on that, and I'm obviously sad for that.

“But I think my overriding factor is that it was a group, it's a group that gave absolutely everything, and they do that every single day, and I can't fault them for that, and I never will fault them for that. That's the man I am, really, to be quite honest with you.

“So while others want to be really judgmental on certain things, I'll never be judgmental on that. They've given absolutely everything, and we've just fallen short and that's just the way it is.”

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