Clarets in Roses clash at Leeds

This is not one I particularly look forward to. Apart from anything else it is the most expensive ground to visit in the Championship and it's not somewhere we have very often come home with anything but a defeat.

We've only ever won there five times, in 26 visits, and three of those were in years before I was watching the Clarets. I was fortunate enough though to be there for the other two, the 4-1 win in the 1973/74 season and the against all odds victory with a scratch team in 2004/05.

Alex Kačaniklić is expected to be available

A total of 54 points with four games to go is short of where we expected to be this season but the season has never really threatened to be much better other than two short spells when, on both occasions, we won four out of five.

Even so, whilst more than disappointing, 54 points should mean playing the last four games of the season with absolutely nothing to play for. Unfortunately it's not the case this season and incredibly we might still need more points to be safe.

Sean Dyche will still be without defenders Michael Duff and Joseph Mills. Duff was injured in the warm up at Watford and has already missed that, when Kevin Long stepped in, and three more games.

He's still some way short of being fit while Mills, who played left back in the win against Bristol City a week last Saturday, is again ruled out, as he was on Saturday at Blackpool, with a stomach bug.

That stomach bug also hit loanee Alex Kačaniklić but he's available again tonight and will be added to the squad that was on duty at Blackpool.

We'll select from: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Kevin Long, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Ross Wallace, Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Junior Stanislas, Sam Vokes, Charlie Austin, Brian Jensen, David Edgar, Danny Lafferty, Brian Stock, Marvin Bartley, Keith Treacy, Alex Kačaniklić, Danny Ings, Martin Paterson.

Leeds are another club who might have been expected to do better this season, but they've been a club in transition with one sale of the club and who knows what might happen next with suggestions of another takeover.

Manager Neil Warnock announced that he'd leave if they weren't promoted and did just that recently once he'd decided a play off place was out of the question.

Neil Redfearn took over in a caretaker capacity but he didn't want the job. Former Reading boss Brian McDermott  was always the favourite, although the name of one out of work Scotsman kept appearing (is this another job he's turned down?) and they confirmed his appointment last week just around three weeks after leaving the Madejski.

He got off to a winning start on Saturday as Leeds came from behind to beat Sheffield Wednesday. It was a win that took them above us. They currently sit three points ahead of us with one point more in what is the tightest Championship ever.

Out of the Leeds team tonight are both Lee Peltier and Michael Brown. Peltier has an ankle injury while Brown is serving a suspension, this being the second game in a two match ban for accruing ten yellow cards.

The good news for Leeds is that Tom Lees, the player castigated by Warnock when he was sent off at Ipswich, has now completed his three match ban and returns to the squad.

He will join the 18 who were on duty on Saturday and Leeds will name their side from: 1. Paddy Kenny, 25. Sam Byram, 5. Jason Pearce, 15. Stephen Warnock, 3. Adam Drury, 19. David Norris, 7. Paul Green, 8. Rodolph Austin, 11. Luke Varney, 44. Ross McCormack, 9. Steve Morison, 12. Jamie Ashdown, 26. Dominic Poleon, 28. Davide Somma, 30. Ryan Hall, 18. Michael Tongue, 14. Aidan White, 21. El Hadji Diouf, 4. Tom Lees.

Last Time We Were There

It was the first game of 2012 and it looked as though we were going to get a fourth successive win after a battle for much of the game with only ten men when we last played at Elland Road.

Referee Mark Brown had astonishingly sent off Kieran Trippier just before the half hour, with the score still 0-0. We spent the next seven minutes working out what to do before Andre Amougou came on with Junior Stanislas the player sacrificed.

Last league appearance for Andre Amougou

For a lot of the time it was a battle but it was one we didn't really look as though we'd lose. Leeds hit a lot of balls into our box but Amougou, in his last league appearance for Burnley, was immense alongside Ben Mee.

We got to half time only to then have to watch referee Brown join in with 'Marching on Together' before getting the second half underway. He, and Leeds, must have been shocked at the way we played and devastated when Charlie Austin gave us the lead with thirteen minutes to go.

We had rode out luck once or twice but deserved to, and now we'd got ourselves on the brink of a win.

But it's Leeds, and things tend to go wrong, and they did. In the 88th minute they equalised when Jay Rodriguez deflected a corner into his own net. Having got so close to a win I was feeling disappointed with a point, but worse was to come.

Up went the board for five extra minutes and they put us under some pressure. We got to the five, we got to six and then, in the seventh minute, Lee Grant made a shocking mistake. He spilled a long range shot from Andros Townsend and Ross McCormack was first in to clinch the win for Leeds.

Another typically disappointing day at Elland Road.

The teams were;

Leeds: Andy Lonergan, Alex Bruce, Patrick Kisnorbo (Lloyd Sam 17), Darren O'Dea, Aidan White, Andros Townsend, Adam Clayton, Zac Thompson, Danny Pugh, Luciano Becchio (Mikael Forssell 70), Ramon Nunez (Ross McCormack 74). Subs not used: Alex McCarthy, Michael Brown.

Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, David Edgar, Ben Mee, Brian Easton, Ross Wallace, Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Junior Stanislas (Andre Amougou 36), Charlie Austin (Sam Vokes 74), Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Jon Stewart, Zavon Hines, Alex MacDonald.

Previous Games against Leeds

Click HERE to see all previous results against Leeds