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Middlesbrough are not regular visitors to Turf Moor and the last time they were here for a friendly was 38 years ago in 1969 on a day when the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire officially opened the brand new cricket field stand. Ironically they arrive this year with the future of the stand to be revealed as part of a major announcement on Monday.
Southgate took over at the helm following Steve McClaren's decision to take the England job, and the club had to fight to retain him because of his lack of coaching badges. Despite opposition from other Premiership managers he was permitted to continue and will now be looking to get the required qualifications as soon as he can.
His first season saw Boro finish in twelfth place and by the end of the season they were comfortably above the relegation positions, finishing with eight points more than Sheffield United who went down.
Jonathan Woodgate, on loan last season from Real Madrid, made his move a permanent one before the end of last season but so far this summer there has not been too much change to the squad despite the promise of big signings.
They have lost Stuart Parnaby to Birmingham and Abel Xavier to LA Galaxy (where he is not the star attraction) whilst striker Mark Viduka opted to move a few miles up the road and join Sam Allardyce at Newcastle. It is also looking very likely that Yakubu could be on his way too with Manchester City considered favourites to get him. The rebuilding of the squad is not complete say the club and to date there have just been two additions to the squad who are:
Tuncay Sanli from Fernebache
Sanli is a 25-year-old midfielder who has been something of a cult figure in his homeland of Turkey and he finally met up with his new team mates last week at their training camp in Austria.
He and Aliadiere look all set to be joined by a third signing in Charlton and England full back Luke Young. A £2.5 million fee has been agreed but he won't sign in time to play at Burnley, he still has to agree terms and pass a medical.
Middlesbrough have warmed up for today's game in Austria. They were beaten in their first game there, going down 3-0 to Schalke in Bad Radkursberg and followed that up with a 1-1 draw against Hertha Berlin in Bad Waltersdorf with Yakubu scoring from the penalty spot.
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He made a total of 29 Premiership appearances in Arsenal colours but only seven of them were starts and he netted just the one goal and that came almost five years ago in August 2002 in a 5-2 win against West Brom.
Whilst there he had loan spells with Celtic, then West Ham and finally with Wolves and it was at Burnley in February 2006 that he made his debut for Wolves coming on as an 80th minute substitute for Tomasz Frankowski. He netted a couple of goals for Wolves, his only other league goals, and he's also scored eight League Cup goals for Arsenal including four last season in their run to the final.
He could have been a Middlesbrough player during last season. A move looked set to be completed in January but an injury to Robin Van Persie forced Arsene Wenger to keep him at the Emirates until the summer.
That signalled the time to move on and on 19th June he signed a four year deal with Boro, becoming their first 2007 summer signing.
Two players definitely missing from the Middlesbrough squad will be Jonathan Woodgate and Robert Huth, both long term injuries, whilst current England international Stewart Downing is a doubt with a muscle strain. Downing played in the last Turf Moor game, scoring twice in England B's win against Albania.
New signings Jeremie Aliadiere and Tuncay Sanli will both play. Aliadiere is expected to partner Yakubu up front whilst Tuncay is almost certain to start on the left hand side of midfield. Emanuel Pogatetz, Adam Johnson and Julio Arca are all likely to miss out with injuries and goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer is away on international duty with Australia.
Southgate is expected to select from: Ross Turnbull, Seb Hines, Chris Riggott, Andrew Davies, Andrew Taylor, Lee Cattermole, George Boeteng, Fabio Rochemback, Tuncay Sanli, Yakubu, Jeremie Aliadiere, James Morrison, David Wheater, Josh Walker, Jason Kennedy, Jason Euell, Tom Craddock, David Knight.
Again Steve Cotterill is expected to utilise as many of his squad as possible and one player returning is Wade Elliott who was unavailable for the trip to Wrexham last Tuesday. Likely to miss out are former captain Wayne Thomas, Chris McCann and Kyle Lafferty. All of them are close to playing but it is expected that they will miss the game today.
Three of the four new signings are expected to make their Turf Moor bows in Burnley colours, and for Stephen Jordan it will be a first ever appearance at his new home. He is expected to feature along with the other new signings Gabor Kiraly, Besart Berisha and Robbie Blake.
The players available to Steve Cotterill are expected to be: Gabor Kiraly, Stephen Foster, Jon Harley, Michael Duff, Steven Caldwell, James O'Connor, Joey Gudjonsson, Ade Akinbiyi, Andy Gray, Wade Elliott, Brian Jensen, Steve Jones, John Spicer, Alan Mahon, Jay Rodriguez, Robbie Blake, Besart Berisha, Stephen Jordan.
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At the time Middlesbrough were top of the league whilst the Clarets were hovering perilously close to the drop zone despite a run of ten undefeated games having come to an end only the week before.
We'd met on the opening day of the season when two John Hendrie goals gave them a 2-0 win at Ayresome Park, and Hendrie went one better this time, hitting a hat trick as Boro cruised to a 3-0 win.
It was a bad day for the Clarets against a Middlesbrough side who included manager Bryan Robson and Alan Moore a player who almost six years later would become a Burnley player. David Eyres was playing his last game before serving a suspension after being sent off in the previous game at Stoke, and we had Wayne Dowell sent off in this defeat. That run was to continue with players sent off in the following two games.
In a season when only one club was automatically promoted, Middlesbrough clinched the title from Reading by three points but for Burnley it was relegated after just one season following the triumphant Wembley victory a year earlier against Stockport. We fell eight points short of safety.
The teams for that December game in 1994 were;
Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Gary Parkinson, Wayne Dowell, Steve Davis, Mark Winstanley, Adrian Randall, Alan Harper (John Gayle), Adrian Heath, Jamie Hoyland, Liam Robinson (John Mullin), David Eyres.
Middlesbrough: Alan Miller, Neil Cox, Curtis Fleming, Steve Vickers, Derek Whyte, Nigel Pearson, Bryan Robson, Robbie Mustoe, Paul Wilkinson, John Hendrie, Alan Moore.