Big game as Clarets face third place Leicester

Last updated : 13 December 2013 By Tony Scholes

It's not so long ago that a trip to Leicester more often than not saw us return home with all three points from a 1-0 win. Four of our first five visits to their new ground, then known as the Walkers Stadium, ended that way with a 0-0 draw between them.

We parted company at the end of the 2007/08 season for two seasons but since we both returned to the Championship things have not been quite as good for us at what is now called the King Power Stadium.

Tomorrow's game is likely to be as tough as we've faced on the road this season but it is nothing to that we should fear. We currently have the second best away record in the division. We've won 17 points from nine away games which has included five victories, although it is now eight weeks since we last won away from home, that a 1-0 win at Ipswich with a Scott Arfield goal.

Tom Heaton says we take a lot of belief from the two clean sheets

Since then we've come from two behind to draw 2-2 at Millwall, fought hard for a point in a 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest and were then beaten at Huddersfield after turning in a poor first half performance, when somehow we didn't concede a goal, and being the victims of some of the worst refereeing we've seen for some time.

Goalkeeper Tom Heaton, who admitted to being at fault with the first goal at Huddersfield, has since had a good week with two clean sheets in the home games against Watford and Barnsley which yielded four points.

He said today: "We take a lot of belief from that and confidence going into Saturday. It's a team ethic. It starts with the two up top chasing and making it difficult for teams and I think we're a side that can box on the back foot a little bit.

"At this level, if you can do that, if you're not playing the great football that you want to play, which you won't at times, you can still be solid and tough to play against, to give yourselves a chance of getting a result."

Heaton has been an ever present in the league since he signed for the Clarets in the summer. He's missed just the one game, sitting out the Capital One Cup win against Preston through suspension, and it is looking increasingly likely that he'll have Dean Marney in the midfield in front of him tomorrow.

Marney's missed a few games recently. He suffered an injury in the cup defeat against West Ham which forced him to miss the game at Millwall. He returned a week later for the Bournemouth home game but didn't look his usual self and he hasn't featured in any of the four games since.

His deputy in the first three of those games was David Edgar and last week Brian Stock started the two home games alongside David Jones in the centre of midfield, his first league starts of the season.

With the exception of Ross Wallace who is recovering from a knee operation and expected back early in 2014, it is a fully fit squad that Sean Dyche can select from with Keith Treacy having recovered from the knock he got in the Watford game that saw him ruled out against Barnsley.

I would think we'll go back to the team that has, for the most part this season, been considered our first choice line up and the team will be: 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, Brian Stock, Steven Hewitt, Junior Stanislas, Keith Treacy, Ryan Noble.

Our opponents Leicester have been right up there all season. They beat Blackburn in mid-September to go top and have not been outside the top three since. They had four days at the top in September and more recently spent a week at the top before losing that place again to us last Saturday.

They go into this game against us having suffered defeats in each of their last two games against Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton, but both those games were away from home and at home their record is only bettered by QPR in this division.

Like us they have 22 home points but that's from one less game than we've played at Turf Moor. They drew their first home game of the season against Leeds and then, in November, were beaten by Nottingham Forest. But other than that they've recorded seven home wins the best of which came two weeks ago when they beat Millwall 3-0.

They are a strong side. They missed out on a trip to Wembley in last season's play-offs in dramatic style when Anthony Knockaert missed a stoppage time penalty and then watched as Watford raced down to the other end to win it through Troy Deeney.

This season they've been even stronger and currently sit in third place just one point behind us and QPR.

They've scored 31 league goals and that's bettered only by Derby but they have benefited from being awarded eight penalties, six of which they've scored from. That's allowed our former loan player David Nugent to get to nine league goals this season; he's scored five of those spot kicks and four from open play.

We know only too well about Nugent. He's scored more goals against us over the years than he did during his season long loan at Burnley and he's scored in three of the games he's played against us for Leicester including both games last season.

He'll have to be watched tomorrow but they will be without striker Chris Wood who has suffered a hamstring injury and could be ruled out for four weeks. Like us, they've been linked with former Wolves striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake but, should he go there, it will be too late for tomorrow's game.

Captain Wes Morgan could miss out with illness but Nigel Pearson reported that Ritchie De Laet will return to the squad after injury although he's likely to be on the bench. Other than that he said they just had some manageable knocks that won't prevent players from playing.

If Morgan plays the likely Leicester team is: Kasper Schmeichel, Marcin Wasilewski, Wes Morgan, Ignasi Miquel, Paul Konchesky, Dean Hammond, Andy King, Danny Drinkwater, Jamie Vardy, David Nugent, Lloyd Dyer. Subs from: Conrad Logan, Liam Moore, Ritchie De Laet, Jeffrey Schlupp, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Anthony Knockaert, Matty James.

 

Last Time We Were There

Last season's trip to Leicester came early in the season. It was just our third away game of the season but followed the pattern of the previous two at Middlesbrough and Huddersfield in ending in defeat.

A midweek game, it was a frustrating night for the Clarets. We went down 2-1 in a game that we really should have got something from, and this was without Charlie Austin who was ruled out with injury. He was replaced by Brian Stock forcing a change in formation and giving the former Doncaster midfielder his first league start for Burnley.

Dean Marney opened the scoring

It was one of three changes made by Eddie Howe. David Edgar returned for the injured Michael Duff and Cameron Stewart was preferred to Ross Wallace, giving the loan player his second and, as it turned out, last start in Burnley colours.

Leicester started the better with Frenchman Anthony Knockaert looking dangerous, a player who had been recommended to the Clarets during the previous year.

Then, with our first attack of the night, we went in front. Kieran Trippier played a ball forward and Martin Paterson did really well to run off his man and get clear down the right. He looked up to see Dean Marney surging forward. He laid the ball back to the midfielder and Marney hammered home high into the net from the edge of the box.

It didn't change the pattern of play too much and we continued to have to defend against Leicester for most of the first half although Kasper Schmeichel made good saves from Joseph Mills and then Marney to prevent us going two up.

Despite having to defend there was little for Lee Grant to do. We didn't have too many problems after that first ten minutes and comfortably got to half time in front.

The home side were booed off at half time but we handed the initiative back to them right at the start of the second half as some woeful defending led to David Nugent equalising, and then, soon after, it was 2-1 when Jamie Vardy got the benefit of a fortunate deflection off Jason Shackell that looped the ball over Grant who was left with no chance.

That was it. We never looked likely to get back into the game to be honest. We'd gone there with a negative and defensive approach but once behind we didn't look remotely capable of coming out and attacking.

By the end it was a comfortable win for Leicester as they had few problems holding on to their lead.

The teams were;

Leicester: Kasper Schmeichel, Ritchie de Laet, Wes Morgan, Sean St Ledger, Paul Konchesky, Anthony Knockaert, Danny Drinkwater, Matty James, Ben Marshall (Martyn Waghorn 74), Jamie Vardy (Lloyd Dyer 74), David Nugent (Marko Futacs 88). Subs not used: Conrad Logan, Zak Whitbread, Neil Danns.

Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, David Edgar, Jason Shackell, Joseph Mills (Ross Wallace 74), Brian Stock (Ben Mee 60), Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Junior Stanislas, Martin Paterson (Sam Vokes 60), Cameron Stewart. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Luke O'Neill, Marvin Bartley, Steven Hewitt.

 

Previous Games against Leicester

 

Last 20 Years
Season Comp Ven Res Att  Scorers
1995/96 CocaCola Cup a 0-2 11,142  
    h 0-2 4,553  
2002/03 Division 1 a 1-0 26,254 I Moore
    h 1-2 14,554 Sinclair(og)
2004/05 Championship a 0-0 22,495  
    h 0-0 10,933  
2005/06 Championship a 1-0 23,326 Akinbiyi
    h 1-0 12,595 Spicer
2006/07 Championship a 1-0 19,035 Gray
    h 0-1 10,274  
2007/08 Championship a 1-0 21,334 Gray
    h 1-1 10,688 Unsworth
2010/11 Championship h 3-0 15,516 Wallace, Iwelumo, Alexander(pen)
    a 0-4 24,039  
2011/12 Championship h 1-3 13,286 Wallace
    a 0-0 19,806  
2012/13 Championship a 1-2 18,480 Marney
    h 0-1 13,050  

 

Click HERE to see all previous results against Leicester