Scott Parker was determined to not focus on promotion after a rampant 4-0 Championship win against 10-man Luton kept his Burnley side within two points of the automatic promotion spots.
After Kal Naismith received a second yellow card in the 19th minute, Burnley ran riot with a ruthless display to remain two points behind second-place Sheffield United.
A Mark McGuinness own goal opened the scoring and Lyle Foster added a second as the break approached, but – in the second half – Josh Brownhill and Ashley Barnes capped off a rampant attacking display.
But Parker was keen to keep his side focused on short-term goals rather than promotion, saying: “I am not focused on promotion. There are 10 games left and we need to keep pushing and see where it gets us.
“There are a couple of ways to get out of this division, our aim is to obviously get out automatically but it is full focus on what is next.
“Every challenge that has come at us, we have hit head on and this is a team that are fighting for their lives and have quality who were in the Premier League last season.
“You only have to look at the history books of teams that come out the Premier League and we have seen that this is a tough division and you have to have a certain something about you to be competitive.
“And we got everything with the performance. We faced 10 men once this season before and it proved problematic and you have seen that over the history of certain games.
“Teams are difficult to break down when they get a man sent off but we had a real patience and we created numerous chances, we served our wingers in threatening positions and they executed and we scored four goals.”
For Luton, substitute Jacob Brown was the only real threat to Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford and they fell to second-bottom as a result.
But despite the heavy defeat, boss Matt Bloomfield believed there was enough in the performance to remain in the second tier.
Bloomfield said: “We have to let it go. We are in charge of how we react and emotions.
“It’s a disappointing day but I’m very proud of how my lads kept going and they didn’t go under. I actually thought we were very good before the sending off.
“With 10 men it was going to be a lot more difficult, but with 11 I thought we were fantastic, but once the sending off happens, it’s going to be a tough afternoon.
“In my opinion, Kal (Naismith) gets the ball, it is right in front of me, he deviates the ball. I know his momentum takes him into the player but the player is not hurt.
“He gets up and he is fine, but no arguments about the second one. I am not going to criticise any of my players, the effort and attitude from them was brilliant, considering our away form and where we are in the league.”
