Burnley

Image source, Rex Features

Burnley's 5-0 drubbing of Plymouth Argyle at Home Park on Wednesday means that they now hold the joint record for the most clean sheets and least goals conceded at this point in the season across EFL history.

The Clarets have let slip just nine goals so far, with keeper James Trafford keeping an incredible 19 clean sheets out of their 28 Championship games.

If Trafford manages to keep clean sheets for the rest of the season, NFL legend J.J. Watt has made a deal, external with Burnley's number one that he will come out of retirement to join up with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Just the 18 games to go then!

Burnley midfielders Zian Flemming and Josh Laurent both scored twice to help the Clarets to a thumping 5-0 thrashing of basement dwellers Plymouth Argyle.

Of the top four Championship clubs, Burnley have the lowest tally of goals with 36, while league leaders Leeds United have scored the most with 53.

But the win over Argyle was the second time they have managed five goals in a match this season, having beaten Cardiff City by the same score in August.

"It's lovely to get so many goals on the scoresheet, that's something we've lacked a little bit this season," Flemming told BBC Radio Lancashire after the match.

"It's something that we knew that we can do but it's obviously nice that it happened tonight."

Laurent's double also marked the 29-year-old's first goals for the club since arriving from Stoke City in August.

For the Englishman, it has been a long time coming.

"I just follow the patterns and trust my team-mates as always," Laurent said.

"I probably owed the boys, I've missed a few sitters so happy I got a few tonight."

Image source, Rex Features

Burnley head coach Scott Parker spoke to BBC Sport following their 5-0 win at Plymouth.

"I thought we were superb tonight," he said.

"We came here with a real clear idea and a game plan. 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 a very different story.

"But a new manager in, an aggressive team, I played against this 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."

Scott Read
BBC Radio Lancashire

Image source, Rex Features

With 10 minutes still to play in the first half at Home Park, Scott Parker was walking calmy back and forth along the touchline, a few paces one way and then a few back, his hands in his pockets, his green jacket keeping him warm, as it has done so far this winter.

His team had just scored a third goal, the first time since August they'd scored more than twice in league game.

By half-time they'd scored two more. The game was over at the break.

A team which has been built on solid foundations, just nine goals against in 28 games so far. Solid foundations and the rest will follow, at least that's the theory. Tonight it was, empathically.

Ruthless in front of goal, the gulf between the two sides was stark.

Unlike the gulf between the top four, there is currently nothing in it.

The top four have all won in this midweek round of fixtures.

Perhaps its points against each other that might be the difference between finishing in the top two, and missing out.

It's Leeds United next for Burnley on Monday night.

Leeds United are interested in Burnley attacking midfielder Mike Tresor, who has also been linked with a move to Dutch side Ajax. (Sports Witness, external)

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Wednesday's gossip here.

Plymouth Argyle are five points adrift from safety at the bottom of the Championship following a 1-0 defeat at home to QPR on Saturday, which extended their winless run in the league to 13 games (D6 L7).

New boss Miron Muslic is still searching for his first league win with the Pilgrims, who welcome promotion-chasing Burnley to Home Park.

Clarets goalkeeper James Trafford saved two penalty kicks from Wilson Isidor in the closing stages of their last game against Sunderland to secure a goalless draw and extend their unbeaten run to 14 games (W8 D6).

Scott Parker's side also boast a formidable defensive record, keeping 18 clean sheets in 27 games, conceding nine goals so far.

• Plymouth have lost one of their past eight home EFL games against Burnley (W4 D3 L1), though that defeat did come in the most recent such meeting in March 2009 (1-2).

• Burnley have won each of their past two league games against Plymouth and will be looking to win three successive such games for the first time since October 1937.

• Plymouth have won two of their 18 midweek league games since their promotion to the Championship in 2023 (W2 D6 L10), though 10 of those 12 points have come at Home Park (W2 D4 L3).

• Burnley are unbeaten in each of their past seven away league games (W5 D2), keeping a clean sheet in six of those matches.

• Burnley's Zian Flemming has netted three goals in his past four away league appearances in the Championship, while he both scored and assisted in his only previous league game at Home Park with Millwall in October 2023.

Nick Mashiter
BBC Sport football news reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Burnley have made a new bid for Plymouth forward Morgan Whittaker.

The offer, a package of around £5m plus add-ons, falls well below Argyle's valuation of the player. It is the second approach Burnley have made in this transfer window.

Burnley failed with two attempts to sign the 24-year-old in the summer and have returned this window, although money is tight at Turf Moor and they are unlikely to offer as much this time.

The Clarets are third in the Championship and travel to bottom side Plymouth on Wednesday but have struggled in the final third all season.

Only 12th-placed QPR have scored fewer than Burnley's 31 goals this term among the teams in the top half of the second tier.

Middlesbrough are also reportedly interested in Whittaker as a potential replacement for Emmanuel Latte Lath as they remain in talks with Atlanta United, who want to bring the striker to the MLS.

Whittaker has scored four goals in 22 games for Plymouth - including the winner in their shock 1-0 win at Brentford in the FA Cup this month.

The former Derby County and Swansea City forward has scored 24 times in 103 games since joining Plymouth from the Swans, initially on loan, in 2022.

Lazio made an offer for Whittaker in last year's January transfer window but he stayed at Home Park to score 20 goals last season.

Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford is still on Newcastle United's radar after they offered £16m for the 22-year-old in June 2024 but the Premier League side are more likely to try and sign Trafford next summer. (The Athletic - subscription required), external

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Tuesday's gossip column here.

Burnley boss Scott Parker says new signing Jonjo Shelvey has "something to prove" upon his return to English football.

Shelvey, 32, left Nottingham Forest in September 2023 to sign for Turkish side Caykur Rizespor, before moving on to their Super Lig competitors Eyupspor the following year.

Having being released at the start of this month, the midfielder has joined the Clarets on a free transfer for the remainder of the season after a successful trial period.

"You can instantly see his quality," Parker told BBC Radio Lancashire. "He's not on the back-end of where he is, he's still got plenty left in him."

The five-capped England international spent seven years with Newcastle United, helping them to win promotion from the Championship in his first season - and Parker is hoping he can repeat that feat with the Clarets, who lie third in the table.

"I think he brings something different to what we've got in those positions," Parker added.

"He brings experience and something to prove as well coming back into England.

"This is a massive opportunity for him now. Back in England, back in a good football club - it's a platform for Jonjo as well."

Burnley and Sheffield United are among clubs interested in 30-year-old Rangers forward Tom Lawrence, with the 23-cap Wales international out of contract at the end of the season. (Daily Mail, external)

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Monday's gossip here.

Image source, Rex Features

It is too early for Burnley to be thinking about promotion, according to goalkeeper James Trafford.

The Clarets are two points outside the Championship's automatic promotion places after Friday's goalless draw with Sunderland in which Trafford saved two late penalties.

"You go into every game to win and if it results in promotion it's what we set out to achieve at the start of the season, so it'd be very nice," Trafford told BBC Radio Lancashire.

"But we're in January - I don't know when you start to think about promotion."

The 22-year-old was part of the Burnley side relegated from the Premier League last season but has experience of a promotion race during a loan spell at Bolton.

"The mindset we had (at Bolton) was just take it game by game, see where it takes us and we got within two games of promotion so I keep on with that attitude," he said.

"We've got the best job in the world - football's fun. Whether it was last season, this season or the season before, it's fun."

Burnley visit Plymouth in the Championship on Wednesday looking to extend their 14-game unbeaten run in the league.

Scott Read
BBC Radio Lancashire commentator

Image source, Rex Features

Sometimes seasons have a defining moment, maybe Burnley's season will have two.

Two penalty saves, the second coming in stoppage time, to preserve the club's unbeaten home record, to deny a promotion rival the chance to replace them in the top two.

Maybe, come May, those two moments might prove significant.

Maybe that point could be the difference between the play-offs and automatic promotion, or maybe not.

Sometimes a player's career has a defining moment, maybe James Trafford's Burnley career will have two.

That double penalty save, undoubtedly his finest 10 minutes since joining the club.

Signed for a huge fee, eventually dropped from the team after a catalogue of mistakes last season in the Premier League, last night he left the field to a standing ovation, a hero's exit.

The defining moment of his Burnley career, or maybe not.

He'll likely leave Burnley for a bigger club at some point, and he'll probably play for England, but for 10 minutes last night, he was centre stage and played his part superbly.

Burnley head coach Scott Parker praised James Trafford's goalkeeping heroics as the Clarets held promotion rivals Sunderland to a goalless draw.

Trafford saved penalties from Wilson Isidor in the 86th and 95th minutes as Burnley moved level on points at the top of the Championship with Leeds United.

And Parker admitted that the point felt like a victory afterwards given how close to the end the spot-kicks were.

"It's a massive point for us in the scheme of where the game was," he said.

"Two penalties and the game could have looked very different if not for James Trafford and the saves he's made.

"Not many words can describe what he's produced. I don't think I've been involved in a game like that one at the end.

"Both were very good penalties and Traff has flown across his goal. Everything about him in terms of those big saves, we owe him one tonight."