'Well worthy': Scott Parker's immediate reaction to Burnley's FA Cup win against Southampton

Scott Parker was delighted with the way his much-changed Burnley side went about their business during their hard-earned FA Cup win against Southampton.

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Parker opted to make eight changes to the side that overcame Oxford United 1-0 in midweek, yet it made no real difference to Burnley’s performance levels.

SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 08: Scott Parker, Manager of Burnley, looks on during the warm up prior to the Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round match between Southampton and Burnley at St Mary's Stadium on February 08, 2025 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Harry Murphy/Getty Images)

placeholder image — SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 08: Scott Parker, Manager of Burnley, looks on during the warm up prior to the Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round match between Southampton and Burnley at St Mary's Stadium on February 08, 2025 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Harry Murphy/Getty Images)

The Clarets subsequently booked their place in the fifth round of the competition thanks to Marcus Edwards’ close-range strike on debut.

“First and foremost I’m really happy with the performance, but then obviously the victory too,” Parker said.

“I thought we were well worthy of the win to be quite honest with you. I thought we executed the game plan to a tee.

“Obviously we didn’t have a lot of time. We changed our system today, but we didn’t have a lot of time to work on it. We had a couple of classroom sessions and 30 minutes on the grass and the players executed it to a tee.

“First-half, we had some big opportunities. I think Benny [Manuel Benson] has an opportunity, Jez [Jeremy Sarmiento] as well. But it was brilliant to score the goal late on that gave us the win.”

Making so many changes could easily have disrupted Burnley’s flow, but as it is they maintained their standard to extend their unbeaten run to 20 games.

“That's what pleases me the most, to be honest with you,” Parker added.

“What also pleases me is the people coming in to make their debuts, the people playing who haven’t played a lot of football due to a lack of game time, players who have been out for long periods of time with injury, coming into a Premier League game, really, that was their strongest team…you clearly see that.

“But we have ambitions to go through in this competition and like I said, the players were brilliant.”

Edwards struck the decisive goal 13 minutes from time, forcing the ball home from close range following an unselfish bit of play from Hannibal.

“I was really pleased for Marcus,” Parker said.

“Again, he’s someone we need to take a little bit of care of. Obviously he's just come in, he's only been with us for probably three or four training sessions, so we don't want to rush things and we need to get some work into his legs.

“But he was brilliant when he came on. I'm absolutely delighted that on his debut he scores a winner for us in front of the away fans as well.”