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It is ridiculous that a team should go four weeks between home games and it is so simple to avoid. Teams having a home game in the week before an international weekend should have an away game the week after and vice versa. There is just now way there should be such a gap between home games for any club.
But things have gone well on the road with five points from the three games from two draws and a win and now back home we have to pick up where we left off having scored nine goals in our last two home games.
We face a QPR side for the fourth time this season, having also played them in the FA Cup, and at a time when once more they are searching for a new manager. That's nothing to do with us, all we need to do is keep collecting the points to keep us in that top six in the league.
Expected to be challenging for honours this season, most of the publicity coming out of Loftus Road has not been good publicity. They had the incredible price hike earlier in the season, thankfully pegged back by Derby's complaint, and closer to the pitch they have continued to change manager just as often as the weather has altered.
Iain Dowie was the new man in charge last August, but he's long gone and now his successor Paulo Sousa has left in incredible circumstances leaving Gareth Ainsworth in charge for the rest of this season.
The media blackout means we haven't heard from Ainsworth, whose last match in charge was our league game at Loftus Road.
I thought they'd be a top six side earlier in the season but almost certainly now they'll finish up around the mid-table area awaiting a new challenge and inevitably a new manager next season.
The suggestions are that Heidar Helguson and Jordi Gomez could both miss the trip to Turf Moor because of injury whilst Rowan Vine returned as a substitute last week for his first action in over a year since suffering a broken leg.
Wayne Routledge, who had such a good game for Cardiff at the Turf in December, could be the one to watch on the right hand side.
QPR could line up: Radek Cerny, Peter Ramage, Kaspars Gorkss, Damien Delaney, Matthew Connolly, Wayne Routledge, Hogan Ephraim, Mikele Leigertwood, Adel Taarabt, Liam Miller, Samuel Di Carmine. Subs: Damion Stewart, Matteo Alberti, Lee Cook, Angelo Balanta, Rowan Vine.
Steven Thompson is again ruled out of the Burnley team and this will be the fourth game he's missed since coming off injured early in the Nottingham Forest win four weeks ago. He also remains a major doubt for the Easter Monday game at his old club Cardiff.
Graham Alexander has been in the wars recently. He returned from Scotland duty with a hamstring injury and then had to come off last week at Derby with a calf problem. He's expected to be fit and should be in the starting line up.
That starting line up is likely to be the one that drew at Derby and our team should be: Brian Jensen, Rhys Williams, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Christian Kalvenes, Graham Alexander, Chris Eagles, Wade Elliott, Chris McCann, Robbie Blake, Martin Paterson. Subs: Diego Penny, Michael Duff, Kevin McDonald, Joey Gudjonsson, Jay Rodriguez.
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It was finally played in December and provided Owen Coyle with his third home game as Burnley manager. He'd won three away games out of three but we'd drawn his first two home games in charge. Now was the chance to get that first home win against the team bottom of the league.
But this is Burnley and it never does quite work out like that when the bottom team come calling and it didn't this time. The first half was a drab affair. We had most of the play but that was hardly surprising against a team that came showing no adventure, a team clearly settling for a point.
Both strikers, Andy Gray and Robbie Blake, missed chances and the closest we came was from Alan Mahon who hit a 25-yarder against the foot of the post.
Then, on the hour, Gabor Kiraly made a good save at the expense of a corner and when the flag kick came over central defender Damion Stewart was totally unmarked to head home and give QPR the lead.
Despite constant Burnley pressure the score remained that way until right on time. We won a corner and we threw the kitchen sink, including Gabor, into the QPR box. They cleared it, Joey Gudjonsson gave the ball away and left Rowan Vine with a run on an open goal. He made no mistake and it gave QPR a 2-0 win in a game they hadn't even tried to win.
The teams were;
Burnley: Gabor Kiraly, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle (Joey Gudjonsson 48), David Unsworth, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, Chris McCann, Alan Mahon (James O'Connor 63), Kyle Lafferty, Robbie Blake (Steve Jones 63), Andy Gray. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Ade Akinbiyi.
QPR: Lee Camp, Bob Malcolm, Zesh Rehman, Damion Stewart, Chris Barker, Gareth Ainsworth (Stefan Moore 90), Adam Bolder, Mikele Leigertwood (Simon Walton 88), Scott Sinclair (Dexter Blackstock 75), Marc Nygaard, Rowan Vine. Subs not used: Jake Cole, Angelo Balanta.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
2000/01 | 1 | a | 1-0 | 11,427 | Mullin |
| . | . | h | 2-1 | 14,018 | Smith Taylor |
2004/05 | C | a | 0-3 | 15,638 | . |
. | . | h | 2-0 | 10,396 | Akinbiyi(2) |
2005/06 | C | a | 1-1 | 12,565 | McCann |
| . | . | h | 1-0 | 11,247 | Gray |
2006/07 | C | h | 2-0 | 12,190 | Jones(2) |
. | . | a | 1-3 | 10,811 | McCann |
2007/08 | C | h | 0-2 | 10,522 | . |
| . | . | a | 4-2 | 13,410 | Cole(3) Akinbiyi |
2008/09 | C | a | 2-1 | 13,226 | Blake Mahon |
. | FA | a | 0-0 | 8,896 | . |
. | FA | h | 2-1 | 3,760 | Thompson Rodriguez (won after extra time) |