Take your coat and wrap up for this one. There can't be many colder grounds in English football than this soulless place, but it is where Burnley need to find some form after the last two games.
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| Chris McCann - You've got to pick yourself up |
It's not been a good week for us. We went into the international break on the back of two wins against Nottingham Forest and Millwall, but any hope of a confidence boost has well and truly been lost as we've dropped like a stone in the two games against Reading and Barnsley.
We had the usual 'We'll put it right' comments from players and management after the awful show against Reading but there was no improvement at Oakwell as we went down 2-0 to a desperately poor Barnsley side on Tuesday.
It's left us 17th in the table and just three points ahead of the relegation places and a win tomorrow would be just what the doctor ordered to get our season moving again.
It's certainly been a stop, start affair. Last season we didn't win back to back games until February and went even longer, into April, before we lost consecutive games. This season we've had the two wins and this week was the second time we'd lost successive games after previously losing against Middlesbrough and Peterborough.
Eddie Howe has spoken about being strong enough to take the criticism that came his way on Tuesday whilst offering no real hope of any squad strengthening (at least not having us thinking next week any longer).
Today, captain Chris McCann has spoken about how difficult Tuesday's defeat was for him. "After Tuesday night's game it wasn't easy to take," he said.
"I was wondering where do we go from here, it was that much of a downer for me, but you've got to pick yourself up for Saturday which is a very winnable game.
"I was down about it and I know the other lads were as well. It does hurt when you lose a game like that and you don't perform like you can. We've had two bad results and it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders at the moment."
One thing for certain, there won't be many changes to the team. Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Martin Paterson and Danny Ings all remain out which leaves us with the squad of 16 on duty at Barnsley plus Alex MacDonald.
It would be a surprise if it wasn't the same 16 on duty and there can be little scope for changes in the starting eleven and, again, it would be no surprise if we started with the same team that has started the last five games.
That would be: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Andre Amougou, David Edgar, Brian Easton, Ross Wallace, Marvin Bartley, Chris McCann, Junior Stanislas, Charlie Austin, Jay Rodriguez. Subs: Jon Stewart, Ben Mee, Dean Marney, Keith Treacy, Zavon Hines.
Our Opponents - Coventry City
Coventry were expected to be one of the strugglers this season and they certainly haven't started particularly well. They are currently in 19th place, that's two places below us, with 11 points from 12 games.
They've won just twice, against Derby County and Nottingham Forest, with both of the wins coming at home. They didn't win at all until mid-September (the Derby game) but the win against Forest as week ago ended a run of four games without a victory.
That was a 1-0 win with Lukas Jutkiewicz, a Burnley target in the summer, scoring the only goal. It was his fifth goal of the season out of a total of 9 scored by the Sky Blues.
Andy Thorn landed the manager's job on a permanent basis at the end of last season, but he had little leeway in the transfer market due to the finances at Coventry. He was able to bring in just three players whilst losing influential players such as goalkeeper Keiren Westwood to Sunderland and both Aron Gunnarsson and Ben Turner to Cardiff City.
Unlike the Clarets, Coventry have few injury problems with Clive Platt, Richard Wood and Joe Murphy all shaking off knocks. It leaves Thorn with a selection headache after Cody McDonald and Gael Bigirimana came in and impressed.
Thorn said: "It's much better than not having anyone to play, I assure you. If people don't play and are left out of the team, then it's not personal but it shows the strength of the team at the moment.
"We will go with whatever feels the best for the side on Saturday but it's great to have plenty of options. We are monitoring Carl Baker and he is getting close and we've got Gary McSheffrey telling me he is available for selection on Saturday but he has been out for a while.
"It is great to have everyone pushing for the start and to see everyone wanting to play."
Coventry's team in the 1-1 draw at Leeds on Tuesday was: Joe Murphy, Richard Keogh, Chris Hussey, Richard Wood, Cyrus Christie, Conor Thomas, Sammy Clingan, Gary Deegan, David Bell, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Clive Platt. Subs: Chris Dunn, Cody McDonald, Roy O'Donovan, Nathan Cameron, Gael Bigirimana.
Last Time We Were There
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| Chris Eagles had our best chance |
Over the years I've enjoyed some good Burnley performances at Coventry, and some good wins. Many of them were at the old Highfield Road but there have been a couple of enjoyable wins at the Ricoh too.
Our trip there last season most definitely does not fit into that list of good performances. We turned in a shocker of a performance in an awful game and we came home on the wrong end of a 1-0 scoreline.
For the first 57 minutes of the game we had the consolation that we didn't look as though we could lose it. Coventry were as bad as us and hadn't really threatened. Then, Michael Doyle scored and from that moment on a defeat was inevitable as we hardly threatened to score a goal all afternoon.
We went into the game in a play off position and yet it was played against a backdrop of antagonism towards the manager Brian Laws. They were chanting 4-4-2, demanding a change in system, and they got it, but things went worse from that point.
Our best chance fell to Chris Eagles in the first half. He should have scored but having got clear down the middle he hit his shot over the bar, there was no repeat of his fantastic goal on our previous visit.
We defended well enough, but our play was just nowhere near good enough overall and once behind the writing was always on the wall.
The teams were;
Coventry: Keiren Westwood, Richard Keogh, James McPake, Nathan Cameron, Richard Wood, Carl Baker (Aron Gunnarsson 54), Lee Carsley, Michael Doyle (Lukas Jutkiewicz 74), Gary McSheffrey (Jordan Clarke 81), Clive Platt, Marlon King, Subs not used: Daniel Ireland, Martin Cranie, Roy O'Donovan, Freddy Eastwood.
Burnley: Lee Grant, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Michael Duff, Brian Easton, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Jack Cork (Ross Wallace 68), Chris Eagles, Chris Iwelumo (Steven Thompson 68), Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, David Edgar, Andre Bikey, Leon Cort, Dean Marney.
Previous Games against Coventry City
| Last 20 Years | |||||
| Season | Comp | Ven | Res | Att | Scorers |
| 1999/2000 | FA Cup | a | 0-3 | 22,774 | |
| 2001/02 | Division 1 | a | 2-0 | 16,849 | Taylor, Little |
| h | 1-0 | 18,751 | Taylor | ||
| 2002/03 | Division 1 | h | 3-1 | 13,470 | Blake(pen), Grant, Davenport(og) |
| a | 1-0 | 13,659 | Cox | ||
| 2003/04 | Division 1 | h | 1-2 | 10,358 | Blake |
| a | 0-4 | 12,953 | |||
| 2004/05 | Championship | h | 2-2 | 10,919 | Blake(pen), Branch |
| a | 2-0 | 13,236 | Oster, Moore | ||
| 2005/06 | Championship | h | 4-0 | 11,683 | G O'Connor, Thomas, Akinbiyi(2) |
| a | 0-1 | 19,641 | |||
| 2006/07 | Championship | a | 0-1 | 18,362 | |
| h | 1-2 | 12,830 | McVeigh | ||
| 2007/08 | Championship | a | 2-1 | 17,347 | Akinbiyi, Blake |
| h | 1-0 | 9,779 | McCann, Caldwell | ||
| 2008/09 | Championship | a | 3-1 | 14,621 | Duff, Blake, Eagles |
| h | 1-1 | 14,595 | Eagles | ||
| 2010/11 | Championship | a | 0-1 | 14,432 | |
| h | 2-2 | 13,802 | Rodriguez(2) | ||
Click HERE to see all previous results against Coventry City