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Needless to say, both of them have spoken about past times in the build up to this game as well as looking at the game ahead. Cotterill has had concerns defensively recently with having to make too many changes.
"We've had so many central defensive combinations this season it's been unbelievable, and lots of changes is not the cornerstone to clean sheets," he said. "But I thought Greg Halford and Ibrahima Sonko complemented each other well against Leeds. They didn't give Leeds a look in in the first half, when I thought we looked very good."
Speaking about his former club, he added: "I had a number of good years up at Burnley and I've got some fond memories. I worked with some nice people up there. Good luck to them because it's a good club.
"I know a good percentage of the players there and they're a nice set of lads. With the signings they made I'm sure it was a disappointment that they didn't stay in the Premier League last season. Maybe that squad could have stayed up.
"I think in terms of strength their squad is in the top two or three in the Championship. Eddie Howe did a good job as manager at Bournemouth and now he's got an opportunity with a very good squad at Burnley."
Fratton Park won't hold many good memories for Burnley boss Howe because of the injury that finally forced an early retirement as a player. He said: "My memories are of a very frustrating time, being sat in the treatment room for a lot of it and going from specialist to specialist to try and find the problem with my injury, so it was a difficult time.
"The people at Portsmouth are great people and it's a great club with fantastic support so from that side of things it will be good to go back. But from a personal point of view in terms of playing it was hugely frustrating."
Looking forward to tonight's game, Howe said: "If you look at their starting eleven, it's still a very strong eleven. We are not going to under estimate them and we know how difficult it will be.
"But we know if we perform as we did on Saturday and put the finishing touches to a lot of the attractive build up play then we should be fine.
"There are a lot of links around the game which will make it very interesting from everyone's perspective. Steve Cotterill will know all about our squad and our players from his time here and I'm sure we will both be desperate to get the three points for various reasons.
"This is one of our games in hand so hopefully we can use that to climb the league, but you can look at league tables and games in hand sometimes it puts you in a false frame of mind. You have to win the games. It's no good just having the games in hand.
"You've got to go there and perform and win the game and hopefully we can do that."