Boyd looked to have played his last game for Posh as he all but signed for Forest but more on that when we take a look at Peterborough.
It's the Clarets first and we go into the game looking for a third successive win on the road in the Championship having beaten both Sheffield Wednesday and Millwall 2-0 during January. It's just over a year since we achieved that with the wins coming on that occasion at Hull, West Ham and Brighton.
These good results, four wins in the last six league games, have come with manager Sean Dyche having had to make changes to his team as players suffered injuries. He's always said that's not a problem but an opportunity for other players and such as Danny Ings and Junior Stanislas have come in and staked their claim for a regular place in the team.
 |
| Junior Stanislas is relatively happy with his form since winning a recall |
Stanislas got his recall for the home game against Crystal Palace. He scored the only goal of the game, his third goal of the season, and then played an influential part in the win at Millwall a week later.
Last season at Peterborough he was used as a substitute for what was his second Burnley appearance. Recently he's been on the bench but is now delighted to be back in the side.
"I think it is just nice playing, full stop," he said. "For any professional player, he just wants to play. It's not nice for anyone sitting on the bench or not being involved in the squad.
"As long as I'm fit I want to be playing week in, week out and obviously I've come in and done relatively well and hopefully I can add a lot more with assists and goals."
Looking forward to the game, he added: "Peterborough is a tough place to go. We went there last year and got beat so we know it is going to be a tough game but we are going to go there fully focused on getting a win.
"We had a good result against them the first time we played them this season and hopefully we can go there, work hard, and get another good win."
Stanislas is in a squad that is bigger and stronger than manager Sean Dyche could have dared hope at the beginning of the week, and he can include three players whose places were looking doubtful a few days ago.
Michael Duff, after missing the last two games, is fit again, as is Charlie Austin who hasn't figured since being forced off early in the home defeat against Leicester at the end of 2012.
Added to that is Dean Marney who was sitting looking at a three match ban after that ridiculous red card last week. Thankfully, somewhere within the FA's disciplinary procedures, common sense prevailed and the ban was withdrawn.
The window closed last night. Burnley had hinted that there would be little happening and that's how it turned out. Dane Richards, signed on the first day of the year, proved to be the only signing but there were no departures from the first team squad.
Two of our first year professionals, Shay McCartan and Steven Hewitt, went to Hyde (without the United) and Alfreton respectively and Alex MacDonald has gone out on loan again, this time for a month to Burton in League Two.
None of those players who have featured regularly in the first team made a move. That's how Dyche wanted it and it means he's still got those players available to him.
Charlie was the one concern for a lot of supporters but my sources were right in their belief that he would not be leaving during the window.
Will Charlie play tomorrow? I've thought about it and one minute I think Dyche will bring him straight back in and the next minute I think it might be a substitute role for him with the opportunity to come on during the second half.
Who knows? Sean Dyche does and presumably Charlie. We'll find out one way or the other tomorrow afternoon.
Burnley will select from: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, David Edgar, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Ross Wallace, Danny Ings, Junior Stanislas, Sam Vokes, Brian Jensen, Luke O'Neill, Kevin Long, Michael Duff, Brian Stock, Marvin Bartley, Dane Richards, Keith Treacy, Martin Paterson, Charlie Austin.
The big news at Peterborough has been the sensational cancelling of the transfer of George Boyd to Nottingham Forest.
Forest were hoping to sign four players yesterday including Boyd and former Claret Danny Fox from Southampton, but ended up with no new signings. The Boyd deal looked certain until Forest pulled out claiming that a sight test had revealed Boyd had less than perfect vision.
Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony explained the situation. They allowed Forest to speak to him after they matched an offer from Crystal Palace and he said: "The eye doctor said he has a problem with one of his eyes and for that reason the owner of Forest didn't want to do the deal. That happened a couple of hours before the window closed and the whole thing stinks to be perfectly honest with you. It's a complete shambles.
"Alex McLeish came back on and asked if they could take George on loan, but I told them to forget that after the way they've messed us around.
Today, Peterborough's calm, quiet and understated director of football, Barry Fry, decided to join in and said the Al Hasawi family, owners of Forest, are a disgrace to the game and questioned whether they were fit and proper people to be running a football club.
Boyd could now come back into the reckoning for Peterborough who, somewhat surprisingly, dropped back to the bottom of the table in midweek when both Barnsley and Bristol City won to go past them, against Millwall and Watford respectively.
They have 26 points, two points behind those two clubs and six points behind Ipswich who are fourth from bottom. Their home and away records are identical with four wins, one draw and nine defeats.
Half of those wins have come in the last seven games including a run of three successive wins in December that saw them record a victory at league leaders Cardiff, the only team to do so this season.
It's defensively where they have the major problems. Only twelve teams have scored more goals than them but only Bristol City have conceded more than the 52 goals that have gone into Peterborough's goal this season.
Attack wise, Dwight Gayle is the one to watch. He signed in January after initially signing on loan from Dagenham & Redbridge in November. He had a remarkable run of scoring seven goals in December in just six games, this after scoring seven goals for Dagenham & Redbridge earlier in the season.
Lee Tomlin, who has scored six league goals this season, is back in the squad having completed a suspension and they also welcome back Gabriel Zakuani who has returned early from the African Cup of Nations after his country, DR Congo, went out.
Kgosi Ntlhe and Peter Grant remain long term absentees but added to the squad is Tottenham's 19-year-old midfielder Alex Pritchard who signed yesterday in a loan deal until the end of the season.
Tomlin (squad number 8), Zakuani (5) and Pritchard will be added to the squad that was on duty two weeks ago when they played their last game, a 1-1 draw at Hull.
That team was: 1. Bobby Olejnik, 19. Mark Little, 4. Shaun Brisley, 31. Scott Wootton, 6. Michael Bostwick, 14. Tommy Rowe, 23. Davide Petrucci, 17. Joe Newell, 34. Dwight Gayle, 28. Jaanai Gordon-Hutton, 10. George Boyd. Subs: 13. Joe Day, 18. Kane Ferdinand, 20. Nathaniel Knight-Percival, 3. Craig Alcock, 44. Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, 11. Grant McCann, 7. Danny Swanson.
Last Time We Were There
Our trip to London Road last season, or first visit there in 15 seasons, came in September after a disappointing start to the season had seen us pick up just one win, at Derby, in the first five games.
Peterborough hadn't started much better but they'd won twice and had two points more. One of those wins had been a 7-1 hammering of Ipswich .
Darren Ferguson had spoken about trying to get an early lead and, if they could do that, they would then be able to play on the break. Our task was to ensure they didn't get any early opportunities.
It couldn't have started much worse. We were a goal down after three minutes, came so close to losing more, and then lost our goalkeeper to injury on 17 minutes. At that point we could consider ourselves very thankful we were only one goal behind.
 |
| Keith Treacy pulled a goal back just before half time |
That first goal was awful from our point of view. It was nothing more than a long ball up the pitch for Emile Sinclair, making his first start. He was able to go between our two central defenders with ease before scoring.
Brian Jensen had no chance of doing anything about it and, as Peterborough celebrated, Ben Mee pointed fingers at David Edgar as Edgar did likewise at Mee.
Edgar all but gifted them a second, but Mee came to the rescue with a clearance off the line. They headed wide from a good position and then another shot just missed the target.
Then Jensen, who was entirely blameless for the shambolic start, was forced off with a groin injury and then Burnley started to come into it.
That was until Sinclair got the better of Edgar down their left. He came inside, went past Kieran Trippier and Mee and duly slotted home his second.
Just as we looked to be going into the half time break with a two goal deficit we pulled one back. Jay Rodriguez played the ball to Keith Treacy who hammered a right foot shot into the top corner for his second Burnley goal.
That lifted hopes of a second half revival. We certainly had more of the ball but rarely threatened. We created little of note and the best chance of the half should have seen Sinclair complete his hat trick after again taking advantage of a woeful Edgar error.
Despite both conceding a goal, neither goalkeeper did anything wrong and Charlie Austin worked his socks off up front with little success. There was little else to report from a very poor performance.
The teams were;
Peterborough: Paul Jones, Mark Little, Ryan Bennett, Gabriel Zakuani, Craig Alcock, Lee Frecklington (Scott Wootton 85), Ryan Tunnicliffe, Grant McCann, George Boyd (Paul Taylor 77), Emile Sinclair, Lee Tomlin (Tommy Rowe 59). Subs not used: Joe Lewis, Daniel Kearns.
Burnley: Brian Jensen (Lee Grant 17), Kieran Trippier, David Edgar, Ben Mee, Brian Easton, Ross Wallace (Junior Stanislas 61), Dean Marney (Marvin Bartley 72), Chris McCann, Keith Treacy, Charlie Austin, Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Andre Amougou, Zavon Hines.
Previous Games against Peterborough
| Last 20 Years | |||||
| Season | Comp | Ven | Res | Att | Scorers |
| 1995/96 | Division 2 | a | 2-0 | 4,737 | McDonald, Swan |
| h | 2-1 | 8,393 | Joyce, Swan | ||
| 1996/97 | Division 2 | a | 2-3 | 5,283 | Barnes, Matthew |
| h | 5-0 | 8,646 | Barnes(3), Cooke, Matthew | ||
| 2011/12 | Championship | a | 1-2 | 7,901 | Treacy |
| h | 1-1 | 13,258 | Rodriguez | ||
| 2012/13 | Championship | h | 5-2 | 10,179 | McCann, Austin(3 1pen), Stanislas |
Click HERE to see all previous results against Peterborough