Burnley Bounce Back At The First Attempt

18/06/2025 13:45 Share

Burnley Bounce Back At The First Attempt

After the disappointment of relegation from the Premier League, Burnley ensured an immediate return to the top flight of English football with a record-breaking season in the EFL Championship.

The Vertu-backed side would be involved in a dramatic title fight that went all the way to the final game, and was ultimately only decided in the closing seconds – albeit in favour of rivals Leeds United.

Fresh Faces:

With Vincent Kompany departing to take over at Bayern Munich, Scott Parker was brought in as manager looking to secure promotion for a third time – having previously done so at both Fulham and Bournemouth. It marked a return to management for the former England international for the first time since an ill-fated spell in charge of Belgian side Club Brugge.

On the pitch, a number of key players moved on to pastures new as the likes of Wilson Odobert, Sander Berge and Vitinho departed but Parker was quick to bring in replacements as he looked to make his mark on the squad – with Hannibal Mejbri, Lucas Pires and Josh Laurent amongst those to arrive alongside Maxime Esteve, who turned his loan into a permanent move.

Fortress Turf Moor:

A 5-0 win against Cardiff City in August kicked off an unbeaten season in the league at Turf Moor, making Burnley the first team since 2009/10 to achieve that feat in the Championship when Newcastle United also managed to avoid defeat on home soil.

Burnley were one of only two teams in the whole EFL to remain unbeaten at home alongside League One Birmingham City – who would also be the only team to score more points on the road than Burnley managed during the season.

The 49 picked up by the Clarets on the road was a new Championship record however.

Strong Defence:

Burnley’s promotion bid would be based on the strongest of strong defences, with multiple records falling over the course of the campaign.

A total of 30 clean sheets broke the club record whilst there were only 16 goals conceded in the league all season – giving Burnley the lowest goals conceded per game record in the history of the English game.

Another club record came in an astonishing run of games from December through to March, where James Trafford recorded twelve successive clean sheets and wasn’t beaten for 1,132 minutes.

The 33 game unbeaten run that secured promotion was also a club record, whilst two league losses was the lowest number ever for the club across a league campaign – one fewer than in 2022/23.

Captain Fantastic:

It’s perhaps apt that Burnley captain Josh Brownhill scored the opening goal of the season against Luton Town and also the final goal of the season against Millwall having led his side from the front throughout.

Brownhill bagged both goals in the game against Sheffield United that confirmed promotion and hit the back of the net 18 times in total. By contrast, he had scored 14 times in his previous 167 starts for the club prior to the season starting.

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