Once upon a time I used to like going to Cardiff. I've seen us win there a few times but that's certainly not in recent times. On April Fool's Day 2000, we won there 2-1 with goals from Steve Davis and Andy Payton but it's been a catalogue of disappointing results since.
It was another four seasons before we played them again but on their return to the Championship in 2003 we played them in six successive seasons at Ninian Park, all six of them ending in defeat in which we scored just twice, one from Ade Akinbiyi and one from Robbie Blake.
After our first season in the Premier League we returned to find them in their new stadium. We drew on our first two league visits, whilst losing in the Carling Cup in what was a particularly poor performance, before getting hammered there on our last visit just over three years ago.
There's more on that match in this preview but suffice to say that, ultimately, the most encouraging thing that day was the presence of Sean Dyche in the stand.
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| Resilience stands us in good stead says Tom Heaton |
On that occasion we'd just won the two previous games which had seen us climb to 14th in the table but Cardiff were top and had a 100 per cent home record with seven wins out of seven. Tomorrow it's us above Cardiff and in a much healthier fifth place in the league.
We go there three points behind the division's new leaders Derby who have beaten Hull 2-0 tonight at the KC, but captain Tom Heaton says we go there with confidence.
Heaton had two spells with Cardiff. He was on loan from Man United for the 2008/09 season and a year later he returned on a permanent deal and was there for two years.
He's played twice against us at Cardiff. He was in the team in February 2011 when he was beaten by a late Steven Thompson header that earned us a point, but he kept a clean sheet later that year in the Carling Cup tie.
He said this week: "It's a tough place to go and they're a good side. In the last few years they've had a year in the Premier League and they've been strong Championship contenders. We'll go there with a lot of respect for them but as ever looking to have an impact on the game in the way we want to.
"Away from home it can be tough but we've certainly got that resilience in the side and the framework. That stands us in good stead at tough places to go."
It will be the first time Heaton has played against his former club for Burnley.
In the last away game at Wolves he made his 100th league appearance for the Clarets, an unbroken run of games that saw him become the latest Burnley player to reach three figures in consecutive league games, the last being Jason Shackell.
In terms of appearances, two more Burnley players, if fit, can expect to make their 100th league appearances tomorrow. Both David Jones and Scott Arfield are currently on 99 meaning both have missed just two since signing for the Clarets.
Jones was ruled out of the Premier League games last season at West Brom and Leicester but has started every other league game since signing for the Clarets. Arfield was ruled out of the game at Stoke last season having missed the home win against QPR in 2013/14. All but four of his appearances to date have been in the starting eleven.
On the subject of appearances, Michael Duff will make his 336th league appearance tomorrow. That equals the total reached by Leighton James with them joint eight in the list in post-war football behind John Angus, Jimmy McIlroy, Alan Stevenson, Tommy Cummings, Jimmy Adamson, Martin Dobson and Brian Miller. He'll still be 43 behind Miller whilst the others are all above 400.
We go into the game on the back of an eight game unbeaten run of which five have been won and three drawn. Four of those games have been on the road with wins at Rotherham and Blackburn and draws at both Forest and Wolves.
It will be a tough game, of that there's no doubt, but Sean Dyche has almost a full squad to call upon, other than long term injury victims Ashley Barnes and Lukas Jutkiewicz.
He's made it clear that Dean Marney, like a number of other players, will have to fight for their place in the side, but it was good to see the midfielder back on the bench last week.
I say, almost a full squad, because there are still doubts about Sam Vokes who has returned to training in the last couple of days and will be assessed before a decision is made whether he'll get a game on a ground where he's witnessed some good times recently with Wales.
If he's out then I expect we'll be unchanged, but I suspect he'll play and we'll line up: Tom Heaton, Tendayi Darikwa, Michael Duff, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Joey Barton, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Sam Vokes, Andre Gray. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Matt Lowton, Stephen Ward, Dean Marney, Fredrik Ulvestad, Matt Taylor, Michael Kightly, Rouwen Hennings, Chris Long.
A lot has happened at Cardiff since our last visit. Then, as above, they were top of the league and on their way to the Premier League, a return to the top flight for the first time since 1962. That's when the wheels started to come off with clashes between the fans and owner Vincent Tan as well as the manager and owner.
It all led to Malky Mackay getting the sack with some ridiculous, but hardly surprising, comments from Tan, and the appointment of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. While Burnley were winning promotion, they were booking their return to the Championship, finishing bottom of the Premier League some six points from safety.
When last season didn't start so well they quickly dispensed with the services of Solskjaer and somewhat surprisingly appointed Leyton Orient boss Russell Slade. I think it has taken some time for it all to settle down but they ended last season in 11th place with 62 points and this season are currently 9th with 25 points from their 17 games.
It's at home where they've been strongest. Over two thirds of those points have come in home games whilst on the road they've secured just the one victory at Forest.
They've won five, drawn two and lost one of their home games. The one they lost was against Hull but they've beaten Wolves, Huddersfield, Charlton, Middlesbrough and Reading.
Defensively they look sound; only the top four have conceded less goals. The 14 goals they've conceded is one less than us, but they've only scored 17 which is the lowest total by some distance for clubs in the top half of the league.
Joe Mason has netted five of those goals with Kenwyne Jones scoring three and that's why they've moved to bring in Tony Watt this week on loan from Charlton. Watt scored for Charlton on each of the first two Saturdays of the season with a Capital One Cup goal in the midweek between them, but he hasn't scored since in twelve appearances.
Watt's claim to fame though was scoring for Celtic when they beat Barcelona in the Champions League in 2012.
Slade desperately tried to bring in another striker on loan yesterday from a Premier League club, but he was thwarted with Watt the only addition to the squad. They are not actually short of strikers but right now have all of Adam Le Fondre, Eoin Doyle, Alex Revell, Etien Velikonja and Rhys Healey, all strikers, out on loan at other clubs.
The press in South Wales believe that Watt will make his debut tomorrow with a starting place and think Cardiff will line up: David Marshall, Lee Peltier, Sean Morrison, Matthew Connolly, Scott Malone, Craig Noone, Peter Whittingham, Aron Gunnarsson, Joe Ralls, Tony Watt, Kenwyne Jones. Subs: from Simon Moore, Bruno Ecuele Manga, Declan John, Gabriel Tamas, Stuart O'Keefe, Matthew Kennedy, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Sammy Ameobi, Joe Mason, Federico Macheda.
Last Time We Were There
October 2012: Burnley were without a manager but had at least picked up six points from two games under caretaker boss Terry Pashley to lift us a few places up the table. Now we were going to Cardiff to face the league leaders.
On the previous Tuesday we'd won at Bristol City with speculation after the game that we now had a short list of three for the job. Steven Pressley, the Falkirk manager who is now with Fleetwood, and Steve Lomas, then at St. Johnstone but more recently with Millwall, were two of the three; the other was out of work and former Watford boss Sean Dyche.
I had been led to believe that Dyche was ahead of the other two and that became apparent when news circulated that he was at this game watching from the stand, although he later confirmed he was there as a guest of Cardiff boss Malky Mackay. I bet he couldn't believe what he witnessed.
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| Joseph Mills just ahead of Craig Noone |
Ben Mee was suspended for this game and that was a key factor with Joseph Mills his replacement. The left-back on loan with a permanent deal to follow probably had his worst game for us of the few he played. He was tormented by Craig Noone.
I don't know why, there was no logical reason, but I'd gone confident of getting a result. Serves me right, I came home chewing over a 4-0 defeat that could have been much worse after a shocking performance that left us having conceded 29 goals in the first 13 league games and this with generally with a back four that led us to promotion and played so creditably last season in the Premier League. No wonder Dyche knew what the first priority was.
Wearing red, but supported by fans in blue, Cardiff took three minutes to take the lead when Noone got the better of Mills for the first time and hit a shot against the post. Joe Mason was there first to turn in the rebound.
Noone did get on the scoresheet himself a few minutes before half time and it was all down to Jason Shackell. His pass to Chris McCann gave the midfielder no chance, Noone got onto the ball and shot. Lee Grant got to it and tipped it up but embarrassingly for him it dropped into the net.
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| The disastrous second goal |
Incredibly we survived at 2-0 until eight minutes from the end before Cardiff made the scoreline look a bit more realistic. They'd hit the woodwork three times but Matthew Connolly headed home a corner and three minutes later it was four when Rudy Gestede outjumped Shackell for Aron Gunnarsson to convert from his downward header.
The player ratings reflected the performance. Brian Stock won them with 5.89 out of 10 whilst the two central defenders, Michael Duff and Shackell but scored under four as did Mills who was bottom with a rating of 3.33.
It's worth looking at that team now and how few of them are still Burnley players.
The teams were;
Cardiff: David Marshall, Andrew Taylor, Mark Hudson, Ben Turner, Matthew Connolly, Pete Whittingham, Don Cowie, Bo-Kyung Kim (Aron Gunnarsson 78), Craig Noone (Kerim Frei 83), Heidar Helguson (Rudy Gestede 63), Joe Mason. Subs not used: Joe Lewis, Kevin McNaughton, Filip Kiss, Craig Conway.
Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Joseph Mills, Brian Stock (Cameron Stewart 78), Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Martin Paterson (Danny Ings 72), Charlie Austin, Junior Stanislas (Sam Vokes 45). Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Luke O'Neill, David Edgar, Danny Lafferty.
Previous Games against Cardiff
| Last 20 Years | |||||
| Season | Comp | Ven | Res | Att | Scorers |
| 1999/2000 | Division 2 | h | 2-1 | 9,753 | Armstrong, Johnrose |
| a | 2-1 | 6,487 | Davis, Payton | ||
| 2003/04 | Division 1 | h | 1-1 | 10,866 | Chaplow |
| a | 0-2 | 13,525 | |||
| 2004/05 | Championship | h | 1-0 | 11,200 | Chaplow |
| a | 0-2 | 11,562 | |||
| 2005/06 | Championship | h | 3-3 | 10,431 | Elliott(2), J O'Connor |
| a | 0-3 | 10,872 | |||
| 2006/07 | Championship | a | 0-1 | 15,744 | |
| h | 2-0 | 11,347 | Jones, McVeigh | ||
| 2007/08 | Championship | a | 1-2 | 12,914 | Akinbiyi |
| h | 3-3 | 10,694 | Alexander, Cole, Carlisle | ||
| 2008/09 | Championship | h | 2-2 | 11,230 | Blake, Thompson |
| a | 1-3 | 19,379 | Blake | ||
| 2010/11 | Championship | a | 1-1 | 21,307 | Thompson |
| h | 1-1 | 14,197 | Rodriguez | ||
| 2011/12 | Championship | h | 1-1 | 13,428 | Austin |
| Carling Cup | a | 0-1 | 11,601 | ||
| Championship | a | 0-0 | 21,276 | ||
| 2012/13 | Championship | a | 0-4 | 21,191 | |
| h | 1-1 | 13,264 | Edgar | ||
Click HERE to see all previous results against Cardiff (no cup games shown prior to season 1986/87)