Burnley face tough afternoon at the Boleyn

It's a daunting looking fixture but it was looking a lot more so a week ago as we prepared to travel to Hull on the back of four successive defeats. A defeat at the KC could well then have seen us arrive at West Ham with six defeats but the confidence gained with that late comeback saw us destroy Ipswich on Tuesday and suddenly we go there with more confidence than we could have dared hope.

Junior Stanislas set for game against his old club

The whole place seems to have been given a boost. The three goal comeback, the 4-0 win and then the news that both Charlie Austin and Martin Paterson could be back in the squad next week for the visit of Portsmouth and whoever might own them come this time next week.

For now though, Eddie Howe takes his side back to where our FA Cup fortunes ended last season and to a ground where we haven't won since a Colin Waldron goal gave us a 1-0 success in 1973.

We haven't played there too often since, nine times to be exact in league and cups. All but one of those games have ended in defeat whilst the other, in the 2003/04 season, was a 2-2 draw with the Burnley goals coming from Delroy Facey and Ian Moore.

We're much changed from the side that lost that FA Cup tie last season. Only 5 of the 14 players on the pitch that night will be in tomorrow's squad with the other 9 having all left the club.

One of the new players in the squad will be looking forward to it tomorrow. Junior Stanislas started the season at West Ham and even scored in the Carling Cup for them against Aldershot. Tomorrow, for the first time in his career, he'll be up against his first club.

The timing is better for him too. He's had some difficult games recently but came right back to form on Tuesday with an excellent performance on the right for the Clarets against Ipswich.

He said yesterday: " To be honest it's taken me a little while to settle in and get used to things but hopefully from now on you will see a lot more improvement.

"I'm looking forward to going back. I will have friends and family there and I'm playing against my old team-mates so it should be an interesting game for me.

"Growing up at West Ham everyone was always good to me. When I was there they produced a lot of England international players so it was good that I was there with them. I then made my debut and played in the first team, so I had a lot of good years there."

Allardyce has expressed concern that Stanislas and Keith Treacy, who he sold to Preston when he was Blackburn manager, could come back to haunt him.

Will both of them play? Ross Wallace is available again but I suspect both will retain their places after Tuesday's performance with Wallace on the bench, unless we opt for a more defensive formation and leave Sam Vokes out again. I think Vokes will play meaning the only likely change is for Marvin Bartley. He suffered a calf injury and is rated doubtful. Dean Marney will almost certainly come in should Bartley not make it.

We could line up: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Ben Mee, Junior Stanislas, Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Keith Treacy, Sam Vokes, Jay Rodriguez. Subs from: Jon Stewart, Andre Amougou, Brian Easton, Ross Wallace, Zavon Hines, Alex MacDonald.

Our Opponents - West Ham United

West Ham could well have been relegated with us in 2010. They finished one place above us and the result of that season, and with the new owners, saw the end of Gianfranco Zola as manager. That saw the arrival of Avram Grant who managed to achieve two Premier League relegations in two seasons having taken Portsmouth down a year earlier.

They opted for Sam Allardyce in the summer and he brought in a number of experienced players, most having played for him previously. They included such as Kevin Nolan, Abdoulaye Faye and Matthew Taylor. There were also some high profile departures, and none more so than Scott Parker who moved to Spurs.

The season opened with a shock home defeat against Cardiff. They lost it 1-0 to a stoppage time goal from Kenny Miller. It didn't set a pattern and they've only been beaten twice since. One of them was a shock, a 1-0 home reverse against Ipswich, whilst the other, also by 1-0, was the top of the table clash at Southampton.

That Southampton defeat, their last, came on 18th October. They've since played seven games and won all but one of them. Brighton, Leicester, Hull, Coventry, Derby and Middlesbrough have all lost to them with Bristol City earning a point from a 0-0 draw.

The size of the task facing us is highlighted by those results and by the fact that only Southampton and Peterborough have scored more league goals than West Ham this season whilst no side in the Championship has a better defensive record.

Carlton Cole is the leading scorer with seven of those goals whilst Sam Baldock, a late August signing from MK Franchise, and midfielder Nolan both have five.

Baldock won't play today. he has a hamstring injury. Also out are Winston Reid (dislocated shoulder), Ruud Boffin (finger) along with Gary O'Neil, Henri Lansbury and David Bentley who all have knee injuries.

They suffered no further injuries in the 2-0 win at Middlesbrough on Tuesday whilst John Carew is fit again and can be added to that squad which was: Rob Green, Guy Demel, Abdoulaye Faye, James Tomkins, George McCartney, Mark Noble, Kevin Nolan, Papa Bouba Diop, Julien Faubert, Matthew Taylor. Subs: Marek Stech, Carlton Cole, Jack Collison, Joey O'Brien, Freddie Sears.

Last Time We Were There

Burnley's last league visit to the Boleyn Ground came two years ago last week. West Ham were 17th in the Premier League at the time whilst we were 8th and on the back of a run of three games without defeat.

Two goals for Steven Fletcher

We'd even ended our pointless run away from home in the previous away game at Manchester City and, having followed that up with an unfortunate home draw against Aston Villa, hopes were finally high that we could actually go and get a result away from home. How wrong we were.

We lost the game 5-3 and West Ham were relieved to hear the final whistle as Burnley poured forward, roared on by a big visiting contingent in that awful seating area in the lower tier of the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand.

It hardly told the story. Against a very poor West Ham side we were 3-0 down at half time and 5-0 behind just past the hour. Somehow we rallied and scored three goals in the last 22 minutes to give a scoreline that well and truly flattered us.

Ahead of the game there was a surprise when Christian Kalvenes was preferred to Fernando Guerrero on the bench. What we didn't know was that Stephen Jordan was ill, hadn't trained all week, and when we saw him play there is no doubt at all that he should never have been on the pitch.

He was so out of it and he was the player who played Jack Collison onside to open the scoring on 18 minutes. A quarter of an hour later he did it again as Junior Stanislas doubled the score and just before half time he was at fault again as Jonathan Spector got through only for Robbie Blake to tug him in the box with Carlton Cole converting the penalty.

Ten minutes into the second half he was finally, and mercifully, taken off but by then he'd given away the free kick, harsh as it was, that saw Guillermo Franco make it 4-0.

Blake went off too with David Nugent coming on and he could so easily have scored with his first two touches. He failed, and when their substitute Luis Jiminez was brought down by Brian Jensen he got up to take West Ham's penalty and we were now 5-0 behind.

I'm not sure what happened at this point but certainly, for no reason whatsoever, West Ham hit the panic button and couldn't deal with Chris Eagles, who, for most of the afternoon had offered precious little.

He got a ball in low across the box for Steven Fletcher to convert and then did it all again as Fletcher got his second. The score was now 5-2 and West Ham retaliated by trying to win a sixth by going down easily. It was Zavon Hines and he did it twice. He got Steven Caldwell sent off the first time but failed to win West Ham a third penalty when he went down all too easily in the box.

Then, right on time, Tyrone Mears and Wade Elliott combined down the right and the former crossed for Eagles to net our third.

On television the day after, manager Owen Coyle blamed referee Chris Foy for all five goals, claiming none of them should have been allowed. He should have been looking closer to home because it wasn't the referee out there making all the mistakes.

The teams were;

West Ham: Rob Green, Jonathan Spector, Manuel Da Costa, Danny Gabbidon, Herita Ilunga, Jack Collison (Julien Faubert 78), Scott Parker, Radoslav Kovac, Junior Stanislas, Carlton Cole (Zavon Hines 45)_Guillermo Franco (Luis Jiminez 59). Subs not used: Peter Kurucz, James Tomkins, Nouble, Mark Noble.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan (Christian Kalvenes 55), Graham Alexander (Kevin McDonald 70), Andre Bikey, Chris Eagles, Wade Elliott, Robbie Blake (David Nugent 55), Steven Fletcher. Subs not used: Diego Penny, Michael Duff, Joey Gudjonsson, Steven Thompson.

Previous Games against West Ham United

Click HERE to see all previous results against West Ham United