Josh Laurent had yet to score a goal for Burnley since his summer move from Stoke City until the Clarets' trip to Plymouth
Burnley moved up to third in the Championship as they demolished bottom-of-the-table Plymouth Argyle 5-0 at Home Park.
The Clarets scored all five goals in the opening period - Zian Flemming superbly volleyed Burnley ahead early on after an Argyle mistake as the Clarets took control from the outset.
The Dutchman coolly slotted home a second before Josh Laurent blasted in a third three minutes later.
Argyle crumbled as goals from Laurent and Josh Cullen in the final few minutes of the half made it 5-0.
The hosts improved after the break - substitute Mustapha Bundu had a goal disallowed for offside with 16 minutes to go.
Scott Parker's Burnley side are now two points off second-placed Sheffield United and three behind leaders Leeds after their win at home to Norwich City.
Plymouth are now six points from safety after Portsmouth's 3-1 win over Stoke City as the 5-0 loss matched their second-worst home loss in history - only 6-0 defeats by Charlton Athletic in 2021 and Reading in 1956 trumped it.
Flemming fires Clarets in front
Zian Flemming has scored five goals in his past four Burnley appearances
Argyle omitted star forward Morgan Whittaker amid transfer interest from Burnley - the Clarets put in a bid worth more than £5m earlier this week - but even without him the gulf between the two sides was clear to see from the outset.
Jaidon Anthony chased down Victor Palsson as he tried to shepherd the ball out of play and Argyle's Icelandic defender was forced into a poor clearance that fell straight to Josh Brownhill whose superb drilled cross was powerfully volleyed home by Flemming.
The Clarets could have been 2-0 up a minute later when Josh Laurent broke through, but he was denied by Dan Grimshaw's legs while the home goalkeeper had tried to desperately punch away as Flemming almost got on the end of a loose ball in the box soon after.
Burnley's nine goals conceded coming into the game was a record for the Championship at this stage of the season, and they rarely looked like it would become 10 as the likes of Brownhill and Josh Laurent controlled the midfield.
Grimshaw made an excellent save from Laurent after 30 minutes before Flemming got his second goal, when Brownhill floated a quickly taken free-kick to Anthony and his first-time cross on the slide from the back post was turned in by the unmarked Dutchman.
Argyle avoid equalling unwanted record
Plymouth Argyle had not lost by five goals or more goals in a home game since April 2022
The Pilgrims had no answer to Burnley's pace and movement, and conceded a third when Anthony and Roberts combined deep on the right before the latter pulled the ball back for Laurent to thunder home.
It got worse for Argyle as first Laurent nodded in unmarked from a couple of inches out after Lyle Foster had kept Anthony's cross in play, then Cullen sidefooted in the fifth following a terrible backpass by Adam Randell that forced Grimshaw into a weak clearance under pressure from Flemming. Boos rang out at half-time from the home fans.
New Argyle head coach Miron Muslic made three changes at half-time as Callum Wright, Bundu and Matthew Sorinola all came on, and it almost made an instant impact as Bundu fired into the side-netting 90 seconds after the restart.
The changes seemed to stem the flow as Argyle had more of the ball and created a couple of half chances, although Burnley had less urgency in their game with their five-goal cushion.
Both sides seemed content with the score as the half wore on - Bundu did have the ball in the Burnley net, but he was well offside as he received the ball before calmly slotting home.
Wright had a 90th-minute effort cleared off the line after getting on the end of Julio Pleguezuelo's cutback as Burnley kept their clean sheet.
While not conceding a sixth goal meant the loss did not get its own page in the Argyle record books, their run of 13 games without a win - stretching back to 5 November - equalled the club's worst winless streak as the side was booed off by sections of what was left of the crowd at full-time.
Burnley head coach Scott Parker told BBC Sport:
"I thought we were superb tonight.
"We came here with a real clear idea and a gameplan. We set that up as coaches, it's down to players to then execute and the players were absolutely first class.
"We needed to come here with a mentality and mindset about us, this is a tough place to come, I know people look at league tables and may see it very different.
"But a new manager in, an aggressive team, I played against his coach once in Belgium and had some struggles in a sense of how he sets up teams, so I knew the challenge here.
"We were just ruthless tonight. I thought we had everything about us."
Plymouth Arygle head coach Miron Muslic told BBC Sport:
"A tough one for sure.
"I take full responsibility for our performance and I take also full responsibility for the result.
"Again, the first goal - we just gave this goal away on a silver plate for the opponent due to an individual mistake.
"But it's football and it can happen, but the reaction was then the team gave up in this moment, not really the desire to fight until the end.
"You go into half-time with a five-goal difference and you know the game is over.
"The pressure was full on us, the crowd was on us, fully deserved, and it takes a lot of courage to get out of the locker room and continue playing for another 45 minutes.
"I demanded this courage, not to change the result, because that was simply impossible, but if you can have this courage to face this and face this harsh and tough reality that might help us for the next couple of weeks and months."
