Brilliant Mansfield pile pressure on Parker – is his time up at Burnley?

League One Mansfield produced an FA Cup fairytale to remember at Turf Moor on Saturday, but for Premier League strugglers Burnley, it was another afternoon to forget.

Louis Reed’s 80th minute free-kick into the top corner of the Clarets’ goal was a cue for 3,500 travelling Mansfield fans to erupt in sheer delight.

For the home faithful, it had the opposite affect – boos and jeers started coming from large sections of the home fans at Turf Moor, and at full-time it became a cacophony of discontent.

With just two wins in their last 19 games in all competitions and nine points adrift of safety in the Premier League, an FA Cup run represented the last bit of hope in what has been a dismal return to the top flight.

“The pressure is on Scott Parker from a certain section of the Burnley fans, they think his time is up,” Chris Sutton said on BBC Final Score.

Losing to the team 13th in English football’s third tier represents a new low in Burnley’s season just as renewed optimism was starting to creep in.

Burnley’s remarkable 3-2 come-from-behind win at Crystal Palace on Wednesday was their first victory in 16 Premier League games. The gloom started to lift slightly.

Parker’s side showed real fight and spirit at Selhurst Park, which made his decision to make nine changes to his team for the visit of Mansfield all the more baffling.

“When you don’t go through to the next round there will always be questions asked about that [team selection] but I don’t think that was the main factor today,” Parker told BBC Sport.

“We lacked a little something in those final moments. That was where we have fallen way short today.”

Burnley are not the first, nor will they be the last, Premier League side to ring the changes for a cup game against lower opposition.

But having been dumped out of the League Cup by Cardiff City back in September, the FA Cup was the supporters’ only chance to distract themselves from looming relegation.

“It is embarrassing, the changes he made. Play your strongest team. He made nine changes, and the second half was embarrassing,” former Burnley defender David Unsworth said on BBC Radio East Lancashire.

“It is an embarrassing afternoon for Burnley. It gives the owner a decision to make now. He has to listen to the fans, they are not happy.

“For the first time I have witnessed all home ends of the stadium booing and disgruntlement. The owner has a decision to make.”

Chairman Alan Pace, the leader of the club’s owners ALK Capital, isn’t the most popular at Turf Moor either at the moment.

This week he angered fans when, during an interview with BBC Football Focus, he dismissed fan concerns as coming from those who “just play this game on a computer somewhere”.

He went on to liken those same fans to three-year-old toddlers having a tantrum.

Pace used Saturday’s programme notes to clarify his words, writing: “I did not intend for my words to upset, but I did mean what I was trying to say which was that, just because some are upset, does not mean that things are dire and without hope.”

Many Burnley fans will be hoping Pace calls time on Parker’s spell in charge, though the former Premier League midfielder said he is confident is his own position at the club.

“I am very comfortable in my position at this present moment in time. We have lost a game of football today against a team we should be beating,” Parker told BBC Sport.

While Burnley’s failures were significant, it’s important not to underplay Mansfield’s achievement.

The Stags have eliminated a top-flight side from the FA Cup for the first time since February 1969, and will now play in the fifth round for the first time since 1974-75.

Despite falling behind early on, Nigel Clough’s side dug deep and hung in – Kyle Knoyle’s heroic goal-line clearance at 1-0 was typical of their spirit.

When their chances came, they took them. Rhys Oates headed in the equaliser shortly after the break, before captain Reed produced a free-kick his club’s fans will never forget.

“As soon as it left my boot I felt it going in. I have been working on them throughout the week. The lads said, ‘This is your moment, go and take it’. Thankfully, I did,” said Reed.

“It shows what a group we have got. The draws we keep getting are big ones. I felt we were always in the game even when we were 1-0 down at half-time.

“I think it’s a cliche, whoever we get in the next round, we will go into that with the same energy as this one.”

Sutton said: “It’s an amazing story and Nigel Clough, at the helm, has done a brilliant job at Mansfield.

“To think Mansfield came from behind against Premier League opposition, they kept on peppering Burnley’s goal, but the free-kick from Louis Reed deserves to win any cup tie.”