Parker’s team won five of their first eight games, surrendering just four goals in the process, despite the fact that they had to battle hard for the victory.

Moving forwardsParker is naturally happy with how things are going, even though Burnley lacks a killer instinct after the summer’s team turmoil.

If I’m being really honest, Parker responded, “Yes, definitely,” when asked if his team had exceeded his expectations.

The squad is new and young. Maybe four weeks, not even five, had passed since this bunch got together.

It’s necessary to resume from scratch because half of the players who received information throughout a six- or seven-week preseason are no longer available.

“I’m really happy with where we are right now, but as always, there will be moments when I say there are things I don’t like or that we need to keep getting better, but I’m seeing a lot of signs that they understand and are picking up on it. It’s evident that the players are beginning to sense it.

Despite not being at their best in recent weeks, Burnley are currently unbeaten in their past five games coming into this weekend’s derby against Preston North End.

Parker went on, “That’s the most pleasing thing.” “We still have a tonne of areas in which we need to improve. We’re making progress and seeing outcomes.

“We’ve performed incredibly well. As a young team in development, from where we were to where we are, I am really happy with the group and the players. Every week, I notice noticeable progress.

Parker added: “Of course there are elements where you want to continually improve and certainly we need to be more clinical.

“In terms of how we played and how we structured ourselves, the Plymouth game is the first that I felt we very easily and for 45 minutes went to the edge of their box.

Of course, it’s appropriate to draw attention to the fact that in those situations we need to be more clinical, but that comes with training and hard effort.

I wish it were that simple to have two or three weeks of instruction and then everything would fall into place, but that’s not how things actually operate.

Parker is also fully aware that Burnley needs to do all necessary effort to get success given the competitive nature of the Championship.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in this division and around it,” he continued.

“Are we going to score two or three goals in the first half, you wonder? Let’s be honest, after halftime, you were probably thinking, “Can we just win and get out of here?” That is all.

I won’t be ashamed to admit that throughout the second half of the match, we needed to fight, we needed to dog, we needed to be resilient, and we just needed