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The season opened at Stoke and the half way point brings Bolton to Turf Moor, the last of the Premier League teams the Clarets have faced this season, and they arrive with both sides very much looking for points.
We currently hold a three point advantage over Bolton who sit in the bottom three although they do have two games in hand on us, albeit both away games.
There is no doubt that we need to start picking up the points again soon. We had twelve points from the first eight games but the last ten games have yielded just seven points with the one win against Hull and four draws.
Life has been tougher for Bolton since the departure of manager Sam Allardyce at the end of the 2006/07 season. They finished seventh that year, high enough to qualify for Europe, but since then have had a sixteenth and a thirteenth place finish.
Current manager Gary Megson has been with them since October 2007, taking over from Sammy Lee after they'd had a difficult start to that season. He's never proved to be Mr Popular with the Bolton fans and he's certainly under pressure again this season with their current position.
Most of his summer strengthening was done in England with the signings of Sam Ricketts (Hull), Paul Robinson (West Brom), Sean Davis (Portsmouth) and Zat Knight (Aston Villa).
His two other signings in the last window were South Korean midfielder Chung Yong Lee from FC Seoul and the loan capture of German born Croatian international Ivan Klasnic from French club Nantes.
They've struggled to get wins this season and are currently 18th in the table. They've won just twice away this season, at Portsmouth and Birmingham. Despite just the two wins, only nine Premier League clubs have more than their seven away points.
Gary Megson will not be able to call on the services of Fabrice Muamba who picked up his fifth yellow card of the season in their recent win over West Ham.
Gavin McCann is also likely to be ruled out with an ankle injury whilst both Sean Davis and Joey O'Brien remain out of the reckoning.
Bolton's team for their last game against West Ham was: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Gretar Rafn Steinsson, Gary Cahill, Zat Knight, Paul Robinson, Chung Yong Lee, Fabrice Muamba, Tamir Cohen, Matt Taylor, Ivan Klasnic, Kevin Davies. Subs: Ali Al Habsi, Sam Ricketts, Andrew O'Brien, JLloyd Samuel, Johan Elmander, Ricardo Gardner, Chris Basham.
The doubts for Burnley boss Owen Coyle centre on the two central defenders Clarke Carlisle and Steven Caldwell. Both were forced off six days ago at Wolves with groin injuries and as early as then it was reported they were both doubts.
Caldwell has already missed a part of this season with a similar injury sustained playing for Scotland in the week before the season started. There has been no positive news from Turf Moor and it would come as no surprise if both missed out.
The good news is that Tyrone Mears is expected to be fit after suffering a head injury at Molineux and is expected to take his place in the team.
Should neither of the two centre backs make it we are likely to line up: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Michael Duff, Andre Bikey, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Kevin McDonald, Joey Gudjonsson, Chris Eagles, Steven Fletcher. Subs from: Diego Penny, Richard Eckersley, David Edgar, Christian Kalvenes, Brian Easton, Fernando Guerrero, Robbie Blake, David Nugent, Steven Thompson.
It is just over nine years since Bolton last played a league game at Burnley. That came two days before Christmas in 2000 and ended in a 2-0 defeat, third successive derby loss for the Clarets when we went into the game without a recognised striker with both Ian Moore and Andy Payton unavailable.
Michael Ricketts came on as a substitute for Dean Holdsworth eight minutes into the second half for Bolton and scored immediately to give Wanderers a 1-0 lead and he scored again just under twenty minutes later to complete the scoring.
The teams were;
Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Ian Cox, Steve Davis, Mitchell Thomas, Paul Weller (Glen Little 57), Kevin Ball, Micky Mellon (Ronnie Jepson 69), Paul Cook (Lenny Johnrose 59), Paul Smith, John Mullin, Graham Branch. Subs not used: Paul Crichton, Brad Maylett.
Bolton: Jussi Jaaskelainen, John O'Kane, Robbie Elliott, Colin Hendry, Gudni Bergsson, Kevin Nolan, Gareth Farrelly, Franck Passi, Dean Holdsworth (Michael Ricketts 53), Ricardo Gardner, Bo Hansen (Carsten Fredgaard 89). Subs not used: Steve Banks, Simon Charlton, Ian Marshall.
Our last top flight meeting at Turf Moor was as long ago as the 1963/64 season. We played the two games against them that season on consecutive days, at Burnden Park on Easter Monday and the return at Turf Moor the following day.
The home game ended in a 1-1 draw with Arthur Bellamy scoring a late equaliser for Burnley after Bolton had gone in front just before the hour.
The Burnley team that day was: Adam Blacklaw, John Angus, Alex Elder, Brian O'Neil, John Talbut, Brian Miller, Willie Morgan, Willie Irvine, Andy Lochhead, Arthur Bellamy, John Connelly.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1992/93 | 2 | a | 0-4 | 11,438 | . |
| . | . | h | 0-1 | 15,085 | . |
1994/95 | 1 | h | 2-2 | 16,687 | Davis Deary |
. | . | a | 1-1 | 16,853 | Philliskirk |
2000/01 | 1 | a | 1-1 | 20,662 | Gray |
| . | . | h | 0-2 | 19,552 | . |