Verdict: Burnley's record-breaking, promotion-winning season doesn't get the fairytale ending it deserved

This was a cruel way for a record-breaking season to finish. Leeds United could easily have cruised their way past a virtually already-relegated Plymouth Argyle to let the Clarets down gently. But no, they had to give them a glimmer of hope and wait until the 91st-minute to strike the killer blow.

In all seriousness, Burnley fans won’t have been too despondent about missing out on the league title. Other than not getting your hands on that trophy – even though they still offer that ‘prize’ for finishing second, which I’m not having – there’s not a great deal of difference between finishing first and second. Promotion was always the objective. The title would have just been the cherry on top of the cake.

Burnley couldn’t have done much more though. The records are there for everyone to see. Finishing the season with 26 points out of a possible 30 during the final 10 games, by far and away the best record of any side, proves how they always manage to turn up when it really matters.

In fact, Burnley are the first side in EFL history to finish in three digits and still not win the title, which just goes to show how unlucky they’ve been.

It feels like a first-placed finish, a third in succession at this level, would have been the worthy finish to such an incredible season. But fair play to Leeds, they’re also worthy winners.

Taking care of business

Burnley came into their season finale against Millwall knowing, in all likelihood, a win wouldn’t be enough. The chances of Leeds dropping points at Plymouth seemed slim.

All Scott Parker’s side could do was take care of their own business and that’s exactly what they did, albeit after a bit of a first-half blip.

The opening 45 minutes were joyfully chaotic. Millwall, knowing they needed to win to finish in the play-offs, gave it absolutely everything they had and caused the Clarets plenty of problems.

They caught the home side napping after just 11 minutes when Mihailo Ivanovic nipped ahead of CJ Egan-Riley to steer home at the near post, resulting in pandemonium in the away end.

Their celebrations were short-lived, however, as Burnley took barely 30 seconds to draw themselves level, as Josh Brownhill emphatically picked out the bottom corner after Ashley Barnes – in for the ineligible Zian Flemming – had kept the ball alive inside the box with a thunderous challenge.

Millwall’s admirable early efforts had left them exhausted. Although saying that, they squandered a gilt-edged chance to restore their lead when Josh Coburn amazingly missed the target from all of three yards on the stroke of half-time. But alas, it was simply meant to be that Burnley would finish the season without conceding more than once in a game.

The second-half completely belonged to the home side. They were utterly relentless and took their game to a whole other level. Millwall simply couldn’t compete with them.

They missed chance after chance after chance, however, and you feared it might be one of those days. But Jaidon Anthony soon allayed those fears when he coolly slotted home to atone for some of his earlier misses.

All that was left was for Brownhill to make sure of the victory with a stoppage-time free-kick, to make it 18 goals for the season. Not bad, eh, for someone supposedly not worthy of an inclusion in the Championship team of the season?

Running out of superlatives

The celebrations were relatively muted, however, as news had already filtered – thanks to the ironic cheers and taunts from the Millwall fans – that Leeds had scored a last-gasp winner in Devon.

It put a slight dampener on the full-time celebrations, which, to much surprise, included early 2000s pop star Natasha Bedingfield. Some supporters headed for the exits who would have otherwise stayed to toast yet another Championship title win.

But there was still an air of revelry among those that opted to stay, and rightfully so. Parker and his players deserve every bit of recognition that continues to come their way.

Ironically it was Millwall who were the last side to beat Burnley in the Championship, all the way back at the start of November.

To put that unbeaten run into some sort of context, by the time Burnley next play a league game, which will be in the Premier League, of course, 287 days will have passed since they last tasted defeat.

They were unable to break the all-time English record for clean sheets, but they’ll just have to settle for matching Port Vale’s 1953/54 side that kept 30.

The Clarets also remained unbeaten at home all season long, while also boasting the best away record too, taking 49 points from their 23 games.

Another way to put Burnley’s 16 goals conceded into context is to compare it to Brownhill’s goals tally of 18 for the season. You struggle to think of the superlative to describe these numbers.

Time to acknowledge

And going beyond this season, Burnley remain a cheat code in the Championship. In their last four seasons at this level, they’ve been promoted every time. On two of those occasions they’ve finished with 100 points or more. The other two, they’ve had to settle for 93.

The Clarets have played 184 games over those four seasons, winning 108 and losing just 15 times. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, these are statistics that should never be taken for granted.

We all know what awaits us, the Premier League was an unforgiving beast three or four years ago, never mind now. Nowadays it’s virtually impossible to compete.

Discussions on how Burnley go about finishing 17th can wait, first let’s toast the class of 2024/25. That’s the least they deserve.