Back home for the first of the big games

Three of our next five home games come against top five teams. After Nottingham Forest we've got Derby and leaders Leicester with Leeds and Doncaster stuck between them and the results of these games will surely be of huge significance in our promotion push.

They don't come much tougher but we've proved so far this season that we have a team good enough to play in these big games and tomorrow's is really one to look forward to.

I've seen and heard a lot this week of the comparisons between this season and our promotion season of five years ago. To match that, in terms of achievement, we have to go up of course, but there is no doubt this has, right from the start, been a better season.

Tom Heaton, we have approached matches with the right attitude

Right now, from 31 games, we have 60 points; in 2008/09 we'd just drawn at Birmingham and were about to beat Wolves, but sat on 47 points. It took us 38 games to reach 60 points; that coming when we beat Forest 5-0 at home.

The 2008/09 season turned into a magnificent one for our club, but it was never more than a top six finish target whereas this season we are still very much looking for a top two place and automatic promotion.

Sean Dyche and the players keep telling us that they just take it a game at a time and that's how it's been but with these big games coming up the supporters this week have really been looking at the potential scenarios for the remainder of the season.

Dyche is likely to name an unchanged team and that, according to goalkeeper Tom Heaton, is one of the reasons for our season so far along with the game at a time thoughts.

"I think one of the themes at the club right now is what has got us where we are," he said. "That has been focus on what is directly in front of us. It starts with Nottingham Forest on Saturday and if we all go out and approach the game in the same manner as we have done for the rest of the season, we will certainly give ourselves a good chance of winning the match."

Heaton added: "We've had a great run at home and they have a long unbeaten record themselves. They are a very big club with a big squad, but we know what we are about and that is a big football club ourselves with a very good squad. We'll certainly be going to go and get the three points and it's all about how we go about it.

"Another key theme of our season has been the fact that we've managed to get the consistency and understanding throughout the team, including the lads who have not started as many games as they would have liked.

"Our motivation has certainly been a big thing this season. We have approached matches with the right attitude and application. All we look to do now is continue in the same manner."

Heaton, who arrived at Turf Moor in the summer, has played in all but one game this season, missing the Capital One Cup tie against Preston after a ridiculous red card at Brighton, and he'll certainly be in the team tomorrow.

Will Dyche make any changes? He withdrew both Scott Arfield and Michael Kightly just past the hour at Bournemouth, bringing on Ross Wallace and Keith Treacy. Wallace won't start so potentially the only change will be Treacy for Kightly, although I suspect he might just start with the same eleven.

If so, we will line up: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Scott Arfield, Dean Marney, David Jones, Michael Kightly, Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs from: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, David Edgar, Junior Stanislas, Ross Wallace, Keith Treacy, Ashley Barnes.

Forest come to Burnley on the back of a run of 14 league games undefeated. The last team to beat them were Reading who won 3-2 at the City Ground on 29th November, the weekend we were beaten at Huddersfield.

They've only lost on four occasions. The other home defeat was against Blackpool and they've been beaten on the road at Wigan and, surprisingly, Yeovil. They are currently fifth in the table and they haven't been lower than seventh all season.

Recently they've had a bad run with injuries, something that Billy Davies is always at pains to tell anyone, but they do have a big squad and have been able to deal with it better than most other clubs in the league.

This season, compared to our 22, they've used 30 players in league and cup games and they've also had such as Marcus Tudgay on the books who haven't featured. Tudgay did spend time with Barnsley during November and December and today has gone out on loan again to Charlton.

Definitely out of the Forest side tomorrow are David Vaughan, Chris Cohen and Dexter Blackstock all of whom have knee injuries. Alongside them in the treatment room currently are Jack Hobbs (ankle), Guy Moussi (calf) and both Henri Lansbury and Kelvin Wilson who have back injuries.

Davies said that both Moussi and Wilson are getting closer to playing as is Eric Lichaj who has an outside chance of making the squad. Other than that they are likely to field the team that drew with Leicester on Wednesday.

That team included former Claret Danny Fox who is currently on loan from Southampton until the end of the season, after which he has agreed a long term deal. He's replaced another former Southampton left-back Dan Harding in the side.

The team against Leicester was: Karl Darlow, Greg Halford, Jamaal Lascelles, Danny Collins, Danny Fox, Gonzalo Jara Reyes, Andy Reid, Radoslaw Majewski, Jamie Mackie, Jamie Paterson, Simon Cox. Subs: Dorus De Vries, Jonathan Greening, Djamal Abdoun, Matt Derbyshire, Dan Harding, Rafik Djebbour, Darius Henderson.

Davies was sent to the stands for the second half on Wednesday; he reported after the game it was because of a raised voice. Today he was charged by the Football Association for two breaches of FA Rule E3; it is alleged that in or around the tunnel area at half time he used abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour towards the match referee Mr Anthony Taylor.

He will be free to take his place on the touchline at Turf Moor. He has been given until 6 p.m. next Wednesday to respond to the charge.

Last Time They Were Here

When Nottingham Forest arrived at Turf Moor on Easter Monday last season things weren't looking too good for us. Having reached seventh place in the table with a win at Millwall in January we had subsequently won just once (at Charlton) in eleven games.

Junior Stanislas opened the scoring

After that Millwall win we had 42 points; Forest were three places and one point behind us. They'd already dispensed with the services of one manager in Sean O'Driscoll and another, Alex McLeish was only a couple of weeks from departure with Billy Davies set for a return.

By the time Easter Monday arrived we'd slumped to 13th with 50 points and Forest were well and truly climbing; they had 61 points from 39 games and were now fifth in the table. They arrived very much as favourites to win the game but in the end were reliant on a late, late penalty to get a point.

In the previous two games the result had been decided by goals deep into stoppage time. There was the outrageous David Dunn goal at Ewood and on Good Friday Sam Vokes netted in time added on to give us a 3-3 draw at Watford.

In a tight, and largely uninspiring, first half, the nearest we got to a goal was when Junior Stanislas broke into the box on the left and tried to curl the ball into the far corner past Karl Darlow, but the Forest keeper just got enough on the ball to push it for a corner.

It was nip and tuck in the second half but we were dealt a blow on the hour when Ben Mee, back in the side after serving a one match ban at Watford, was forced off with an injury. With Danny Lafferty out injured it was Joseph Mills who came on for his first Turf Moor appearance since the third game of the season.

He'd been on the pitch just a few minutes when he contributed to the opening goal . Stanislas picked up the ball in a deep position, moved forward and then played it out to Mills with nothing else on for him.

Mills made ground before crossing the ball. It cleared everyone in the middle but Stanislas had continued his run and shot home via a big deflection.

There were just over 20 minutes to go and Forest put us under some real pressure but we held firm right up to the 90 minutes, when the fourth official held up the board showing five extra minutes to be played.

In the fourth of those minutes we replaced Stanislas with David Edgar and in the time added on to the five minutes for the substitution we gave away a poor penalty with Kevin Long bringing down Henri Lansbury.

We were into the seventh minute of stoppage time when Lewis McGugan scored from the spot to win Forest a point and condemn us to a further drop in the table.

Things weren't looking good with six games remaining but we went on to win three of them and ended the season comfortably away from the bottom three.

The teams were;

Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Kevin Long, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee (Joseph Mills 60), Ross Wallace (Danny Ings 71), Marvin Bartley, Chris McCann, Junior Stanislas (David Edgar 90+4), Sam Vokes, Charlie Austin. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Brian Stock, Alex Kačaniklić, Martin Paterson.

Nottingham Forest: Karl Darlow, Gonzalo Jara Reyes, Elliott Ward, Greg Halford, Chris Cohen, Guy Moussi, Henri Lansbury, Lewis McGugan, Andy Reid (Radoslaw Majewski 76), Dexter Blackstock (Darius Henderson 73), Billy Sharp (Simon Cox 73). Subs not used: Dimitar Evitmov, Dan Harding, Danny Collins, Jonathan Greening.

Previous Games against Nottingham Forest

Click HERE to see all previous results against Nottingham Forest