Back on the road to Swansea

Over four years later here we are again, ready to travel to Swansea for what will be the first ever clash between the two clubs in top flight football.

We've not played Swansea that often over the years, but tomorrow's game will complete the set to add to our past meetings in the three leagues below.

My first ever visit to the old Vetch Field was for a friendly in 1972 whilst tomorrow will be my third visit to the Liberty Stadium. The first of them was for the 1-1 draw in our play-off winning season of 2008/09 when a Joey Gudjonsson goal looked all set to win it until a late, late equaliser from Ferrie Bodde. The second, and most recent visit was for the 1-0 defeat detailed below.

Stephen Ward is happy back in the Premier League

I've seen us twice win at the Vetch. A 1-0 win at the end of the 1984/85 season took us close to safety, but not close enough with us going down to the fourth division and Swansea just about surviving. More recently in 1995 it was the scene of our last ever away points under Jimmy Mullen in a 4-2 win.

Tomorrow we go there having lost our opening game of the season to a very impressive Chelsea side. It's another difficult game, as they all will be, but we should expect that this one might not be just as tough as the opener.

There'll be a new face in the Burnley squad tomorrow, that of Stephen Ward who signed a week ago but was not included for the Chelsea game.  Ward is likely to be on the bench tomorrow but is looking forward to challenging for a place in the team.

This week he told the Burnley Express: "It's great to be back in the Premier League. It was obviously tough at Wolves, they made it quite clear that there was a few of us that they wanted to move on.

"It was difficult and we all had to go out on loan to get some game time. I really enjoyed it at Brighton and it gave me the stepping stone to get a move like this. "

He looked all set to return to Brighton but added: "When a Premier League club comes along, especially a club like Burnley who I played against last year and saw the spirit and willingness they had to do well, it was an easy decision in the end."

It's very early in the season but Dyche has shown since arriving at Turf Moor that he doesn't often make too many changes to the team and so it is likely there won't be too many changes from the eleven which kicked off against Chelsea.

It would be no surprise if we started with the same team and could line up: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Scott Arfield, Dean Marney, David Jones, Matt Taylor, Danny Ings, Lukas Jutkiewicz. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Cameron Dummigan, Steven Reid, Kevin Long, Stephen Ward, Danny Lafferty, Ross Wallace, Michael Kightly, Ashley Barnes, Marvin Sordell.

Swansea had the unenviable task of facing Manchester United on the opening day of the season for a second season in succession. They provided the opposition for David Moyes' United a year ago, losing 4-1 at home, but one year on, and with Louis van Gaal in charge of United, they took all three points from Old Trafford with a 2-1 win.

Ki Sung-Yueng, who spent last season on loan at Sunderland, gave them the lead in the first half and, after a Wayne Rooney equaliser, they won it with a Gylfi Sigurdsson goal on his second debut for them after two years with Spurs.

Sigurdsson was one of six signings made before the season kicked off; Others included Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski and Jefferson Montero, who was used as a substitute.

This week they've added two more names to their squad with the £8 million signing of Argentina defender Federico Fernandez and today's capture of Tottenham's Tom Carroll on a season long loan.

It will be a race against time for Fernandez with the Swans still awaiting international clearance although as they are now under the jurisdiction of our FA there will be no such delays for Carroll who will go straight into their squad.

With Leon Britton, Marvin Emnes and Jay Fulton all still out with knee injuries it is expected to be the same players on duty as last week plus Carroll and potentially Fernandez.

Swansea will select from: Lukasz Fabianski, Angel Rangel, Ashley Williams, Jordi Amat, Neil Taylor, Ki Sung-Yueng, Jonjo Shelvey, Wayne Routledge, Nathan Dyer, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Wilfried Bony, Gerhard Tremmel, Kyle Bartley, Jazz Richards, Josh Sheehan, Dwight Tiendalli, Jefferson Montero, Bafetimbi Gomis, Federico Fernandez, Tom Carroll.

Last Time We Were There

Our second and most recent visit to the Liberty Stadium was in August 2010 and proved to be our first defeat of the season in what was our fourth game.

We lost the game 1-0. It was the start of the game that proved to be the crucial period as Swansea scored their only goal and they should certainly have had more. Incredibly the one they did score should have been flagged offside but we had no answer to them until Martin Paterson (who started on the right) and Ross Wallace (left) were switched, after which the game changed completely.

Tyrone Mears was sent off

By half time we probably should have been level but both Paterson and Chris Iwelumo missed opportunities but the 1-0 scoreline at half time was certainly justified with Swansea, overall, having been the better side.

Swansea were nothing like in the second half and had Darren Pratley yellow carded for diving, and that proved crucial. We pushed forward and our hopes were raised when Pratley got a second yellow for a foul on Tyrone Mears.

He apologised to Mears for the challenge before leaving the pitch but the Burnley right-back was forced to leave the field after receiving treatment. When he came back on he went straight into a challenge with Nathan Dyer that saw him sent off too, our one man advantage had lasted for less than a minute.

We pushed for an equaliser but the closest we came was from a Steven Thompson header and the final whistle signalled a defeat, our first in Swansea since 1993.

The teams were;

Swansea: Dorus de Vries, Alan Tate, Ashley Williams, Garry Monk, Neil Taylor, Nathan Dyer (Andrea Orlandi 69), Mark Gower, Darren Pratley, Scott Sinclair, David Cotterill (Joe Allen 62), Stephen Dobbie (Shefki Kuqi 78). Subs not used: David Cornell, Jordi Lopez, Albert Serran, Jazz Richards.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Andre Bikey, Danny Fox, Graham Alexander (Jack Cork 63), Wade Elliott, Dean Marney (Chris Eagles 72), Martin Paterson (Steven Thompson 68), Chris Iwelumo, Ross Wallace. Subs not used: Lee Grant, David Edgar, Leon Cort, Jay Rodriguez.

Previous Games against Swansea

Click HERE to see all previous results against Swansea