Burnley going into The Valley in search of a win

We have a bit of a score to settle with Charlton. Back in November they left Turf Moor with all three points in a game that saw us down to ten men after just fifteen minutes when referee Bobby Madley decided Kieran Trippier had handled the ball on the line.

Despite being a man down, with Dean Marney filling in at right back in the re-shuffle, we were still very unfortunate to lose the game but lose it we did when Danny Haynes scored the only goal of the game with eleven minutes remaining.

Now we travel to The Valley for the return fixture very much in need of a win to give us a lift. When we played just down the road from them at Millwall in January, and winning 2-0, things were looking good, but two points in six games since have seen any hope of making the play offs disappear and has left some looking at the bottom three places with some concern.

Back to basics says Danny Lafferty

One plus in recent weeks has been the continued good form of Danny Lafferty at left back. He's been given an extended run in the first team following an injury to Ben Mee against Blackburn at the beginning of December. He's been preferred to Joseph Mills and has missed just one game since, at Birmingham, when injury ruled him out with Mills deputising.

Of Tuesday's defeat against Huddersfield, Lafferty said: "It definitely wasn't good enough," but he believes we have more than enough in the team to turn things round quickly.

He said: "We need to pick up some wins because it's such a tight table and we could find ourselves in an even bigger hole if we don't turn this round. We need to make the most of these games coming up and dig deep as a team. We want to get ourselves out of this hole that we're in at the minute.

"We don't need luck, we've got certain team beliefs and we need to do them right and get back to basics. We've got nothing but belief and confidence in ourselves as a squad. I don't think we've got to worry too much but we definitely need to address these slack, sloppy one goal losses."

Lafferty is a certain starter although Ben Mee is fit. Sean Dyche said at the Dyche Night last night that they were trying to arrange a friendly for Ben to play in but believed he was there. He could be in the squad.

It's a depleted squad too. Michael Duff and Ross Wallace remain out of the picture and it looks as if they have been joined by midfield duo Dean Marney and Chris McCann who were both forced off with injuries in the Huddersfield defeat.

The manager was certainly pleased with Marvin Bartley's performance when he came on as a substitute on Tuesday and I think he is just about certain to get his first league start since the draw at Barnsley, a game that saw him replaced at half time by Danny Ings.

David Edgar looks the most likely to get the nod for the other midfield berth, or did until today when we swooped to bring in Swedish international midfielder Alexander Kačaniklić from Fulham this afternoon.

He's a player Dyche knows well from Watford and I'm sure he'll be involved tomorrow although I think it could be from the bench.

We could line up: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Kevin Long, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, David Edgar, Brian Stock, Danny Ings, Marvin Bartley, Keith Treacy, Charlie Austin. Subs from: Brian Jensen, Luke O'Neill, Ben Mee, Joseph Mills, Dane Richards, Junior Stanislas, Alexander Kačaniklić, Martin Paterson, Sam Vokes.

It's our first visit to The Valley in over four years. At the end of the 2008/09 we very definitely went our separate ways. We went up to the Premier League as Charlton dropped into League One.

They made the play offs in their first season down but went out in a dramatic semi-final against Swindon, going out on penalties after the tie had ended 3-3. A certain Charlie Austin scored the first goal in that tie, giving Swindon the lead in the first leg at the County Ground.

The next season was a disappointing one and that brought a change of manager in January 2011 with Chris Powell replacing Phil Parkinson and some sixteen months later he'd steered them back to the Championship, winning League One with a total of 101 points.

It's been a steady sort of first season back. It's been mainly spent in the bottom half but they've never really looked to be in too much danger. They currently sit two places below us in 15th with one less point although they have played a game more than us.

They are a bit like we were last season. They've won more away games than any team in the division outside the top three, but they've won only four home wins and that's only matched by Wolves.

Two of those home wins have come against high flying Cardiff and Leicester. They've also beaten Blackpool and bottom club Peterborough. The Cardiff game will take some beating. They fell a goal behind early, went 2-0 down midway through the first half but then turned it on its head and led 5-2 going into stoppage time only to concede two late goals.

Johnnie Jackson got a couple of their goals that day and he's scored seven league goals in total. The only Charlton player with more goals is Yann Kermorgant but he's missing tomorrow after receiving a red card last Saturday.

He starts a three match ban tomorrow and that could see a recall for Danny Haynes, the Turf Moor goalscorer or nemesis Ricardo Fuller. There could potentially be a place for Jon Obika who is on loan from Spurs and made his debut as a substitute last week.

Powell has been playing 4-5-1 but could change in Kermorgant's absence so we could see two of those players coming in.

They will select from: 1. Ben Hamer, 20. Chris Solly, 16. Rhoys Wiggins, 28. Leon Cort, 5. Michael Morrison, 14. Bradley Pritchard, 44. Dorian Dervite, 8. Dale Stephens, 4. Johnnie Jackson, 11. Scott Wagstaff, 27. David Button, 6. Matthew Taylor, 3. Cedric Evina, 23. Lawrie Wilson, 7. Danny Green, 17. Jordan Cook,26.  Jon Obika, 19. Ricardo Fuller, 9. Danny Haynes, 12. Salim Kerkar.

Last Time We Were There

We go back to October 2008 for our last trip to Charlton. We'd won 3-1 at Coventry in midweek on the day the 'Bad Beat Bobs' were launched and had lifted ourselves to sixth in the table, no mean feat given the start to the season.

Charlton, meanwhile, were in 20th place having lost their midweek game 2-0 at home against Bristol City.

It was an unchanged Burnley team and also an unchanged bench which meant the match winning goalscorers at Coventry, Robbie Blake and Chris Eagles, again sat out the start. Did I say an unchanged bench? Yes it was with Stephen Jordan one of the five, just as he'd been at Coventry (it was he who pulled down Robbie's shorts) despite him being named as Remco van der Schaaf.

A first goal for Steven Thompson

Charlton left out former Claret Andy Gray due to a family illness and with only eight minutes gone we thought we'd taken the lead. Martin Paterson went clear. The assistant flagged him offside initially but then opted to put his flag down. Pato went through and scored only for a debate between the officials to rule it out.

Even so, we didn't have to wait too long. Another five minutes in and Steven Thompson scored for us. It was his first goal for Burnley and was the only goal of the first half and no one could argue with us taking a lead in at the interval.

Charlton were booed off at half time. We'd outplayed them. They came out for the second half with Alan Pardew having made two changes, replacing Linvoy Primus and Izale McLeod with Lloyd Sam and Svetoslav Todorov.

The game changed. Charlton had a lot more of the ball but we were still very dangerous on the counter and twice came close to doubling the lead. As the half went on we dropped deeper and deeper, almost inviting them on to us and inevitably we paid the price when Todorov headed home following a free kick.

We stormed forward and almost immediately we were inches away when a Joey Gudjonsson pile driver hammered against the bar but it was Charlton who should have won it when Jordan, and it was Jordan, on as a sub, got a back pass horribly wrong. Luke Varney took the ball round Brian Jensen and looked a certain scorer until Michael Duff appeared from nowhere to block the shot on the line and ensure it finished 1-1.

The teams were;

Charlton: Nicky Weaver, Yassin Moutaouakil, Martin Cranie, Mark Hudson, Linvoy Primus (Lloyd Sam 45), Darren Ambrose, Nicky Bailey, Josh Wright (Matt Holland 81), Grant Basey, Izale McLeod (Svetoslav Todorov 45), Luke Varney. Subs not used: Robert Elliot, Hameur Bouazza.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell (Stephen Jordan 51), Christian Kalvenes, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, Chris McCann, Steven Thompson (Robbie Blake 73), Martin Paterson (Chris Eagles 60). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Jay Rodriguez.

Previous Games against Charlton

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