A pre-season ends with Verona

Last updated : 08 August 2014 By Tony Scholes

Chievo and Hellas Verona are the two who play there and it is Hellas who will be at Turf Moor tomorrow for what is our last pre-season game before our return to the Premier League.

It's over 47 years since an Italian team played at our ground and somehow I don't think the atmosphere tomorrow will be quite like it was that night as we beat Napoli 3-0 in the first leg of a Fairs Cup tie in 1967.

Hellas will provide another stern test. Last season they finished 10th in Serie A, with sixteen wins and sixteen defeats, and they will come to Burnley with a strong squad which includes Luca Toni and Massimo Donati.

They've been busy in the transfer market too this week with the signings of veteran Mexican defender Rafael Marquez and the loan capture of Aston Villa full back Antonio Luna. Both are expected to feature with Marquez having met up with the squad in Manchester today before the party moved on to a Bury hotel.

The play in yellow and blue and their nickname of giallioblu literally means Yellow-Blues in Italian. They had considerable success in the 1970s and 1980s but they are just on their way back from a difficult period that saw them out of the top flight, even dropping into Serie C1.

Things changed with the appointment of Andrea Mandorlini as manager in November 2010. The experienced manager steered them back into Serie B in his first season and a year ago completed the rescue with promotion back to Serie A.

After this tenth place finish, six places above rivals Chievo, they are now looking to continue that improvement and push further up the table in 2014/15.

The game will give our manager Sean Dyche more food for thought as he starts to put his team together for the opening Premier League game a week on Monday. And the good news is that he's got, Sam Vokes apart, a full squad to select from with Danny Ings fit again after missing the Celta Vigo game.

With no sign of any new signings, as yet, we will select from: Tom Heaton, Matt Gilks, Alex Cisak, Kieran Trippier, Steven Reid, Luke O'Neill, Michael Duff, Kevin Long, Jason Shackell, Tom Anderson, Ben Mee, Danny Lafferty, Ross Wallace, Scott Arfield, Dean Marney, David Jones, Steven Hewitt, Michael Kightly, Matt Taylor, Danny Ings, Luke Jutkiewicz, Ashley Barnes, Marvin Sordell, Jason Gilchrist.