Dave Thornley gets to grip with the Clarets’ rocket fuelled start to the new Championship season, with another big test coming up on Saturday for Cardy Parker that is for sure. (TEC).

Six days, six points, nine goals, eight scorers and two departures. It’s been quite a week at Burnley Football Club.

The six points were generated by two emphatic wins. Firstly, away to a Luton Town inconvenienced by injuries, but nevertheless swamped by a Burnley display of slick, precise football.

Josh Brownhill’s early opener set the tone, followed before the break by Wilson Odobert turning on the after burners to out-pace the defence and slot home a neat finish. A final Burnley encore for Odobert coming days before he joined Spurs. He was shortly followed to the departure lounge by Scott Twine, who left for Bristol City.

Luton applied some pressure early in the second half and pulled back a goal, through Chong from close range, but Dara O’Shea’s near post header and Vitinho’s angled finish put the game to bed.
And so, to Saturday and the first home game of the season and a debut in the Turf Moor technical area for Scott Parker. Cardiff City were the visitors.

Parker may well have been dismayed with what he saw in the first half as Cardiff held sway on possession, hit the post and had a goal chalked off for offside and yet, they turned around two goals to nil behind.
The Bluebirds’ goalkeeper Horvath miscued a back pass and allowed the ball to dribble over his goal line, an identical blunder to the one we witnessed last season when Aro Muric conceded into the same Cricket Field Stand goal against Brighton.
Luca Koleosho’s close range effort from Jay Rodriguez’s cross was the only shot on target supplied by a Burnley boot before the break and was enough to double their lead.
Burnley’s third goal early in the second half, Brownhill concluding a flowing move featuring Foster and Vitinho, sucked the life out of Cardiff and the remainder of the match was plain sailing for the Clarets, with substitutes Zeki Amdouni and Johann Berg Gudmundsson each scoring from long range to round off the second emphatic victory of the week.

So far so good, but the matches come thick and fast in the Championship; Saturday’s visit to Sunderland will be swiftly followed by the East Lancs Derby against Blackburn Rovers and a trip to Elland Road to face Leeds.

By then, we should know the formation of the squad after the closure of the transfer window. More departures cannot be ruled out as Parker takes his pruning shears to excess foliage of his playing staff.

The evidence of this first week however demonstrates that whoever remains will be sufficient to compete strongly at the top end of the Championship table.