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After the heroics in London with the wins at Chelsea and QPR we came back down to earth with just one point from the games against Doncaster and Barnsley and now we need to start picking up points again starting with Derby.
It hasn't proved to be the easiest of home fixtures over the years. It is five seasons since we beat them at home, when Graham Branch scored the only goal of the game to virtually ensure we were safe from relegation.
That brought to an end a run of three successive home wins against the Rams, but these are the only home league wins against them since April 1951. We've done well though against the relegated clubs and have already drawn against Birmingham and beaten Reading at the Turf.
When Derby beat Sheffield United on 13th September 3-1 at Pride Park it brought to an end a run without a league win of just about a year, four days short to be exact. They'd won promotion in 2007 but hardly competed in the Premier League and won just the one game against Newcastle.
It cost Little Billy Davies his job and the new management team of Paul Jewell and Stan Ternent were unable to rescue anything from the season. Just before the end of the season Ternent left to join Huddersfield but Jewell set about rebuilding the squad over the summer.
He brought in no fewer than twelve new signings (three of them loan players) including such as Kris Commons from Notingham Forest, Martin Albrechtsen from West Brom, Rob Hulse from Sheffield United and Stockport striker Liam Dickinson.
When the new season started with no wins in the first four games there was a lot of speculation that Jewell's job could be up for grabs, but that win over the Blades started to turn things round. They had a run of seven games without defeat and are now very comfortably in mid-table considerably closer to the play off positions than the relegation positions.
Derby were one of the promotion favourites before the season got underway and they have strengthened their squad further this week. They have signed Charlton's former Crewe striker Luke Varney, a deal that will be made permanent in January, and also taken young West Ham defender James Tomkins.
Two players have gone out on loan. They are Jay McEveley, our former loan player, who has gone to Charlton and Dickinson who has signed for Blackpool.
With two new signings at the club waiting to make their debuts it is difficult to work out just what Paul Jewell's starting line up will be. James Tomkins and Luke Varney signed on Thursday's transfer deadline day and will surely be in the squad even if they don't start.
It may be the case that he sticks with the side that drew with Preston on Tuesday night and names the two new boys on the bench. If he does that then Derby's team will be:
Roy Carroll, Paul Connolly, Darren Powell, Lewin Nyatanga, Jordan Stewart, Nacer Barazite, Miles Addison, Paul Green, Przemyslaw Kazmierczak, Emanuel Villa, Rob Hulse. Subs from: Stephen Bywater, James Tomkins, Mile Sterjovski, Ruben Zadkovich, Nathan Ellington, Luke Varney.
Owen Coyle has some deliberating to do before naming his side. He has Steven Thompson back after serving a one match suspension, but there's no doubt the last half an hour or so at Oakwell will have had an influence with the performances of substitutes Kevin McDonald and Martin Paterson.
It wouldn't be a surprise to see both those substitutes start and if that's the case then Thompson may well have to start on the bench, whilst there are other things to consider such as whether we'll revert to playing Graham Alexander at full back.
Wade Elliott has a chance of playing and if he does then I would think the team could look something like the following:
Brian Jensen, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott, Kevin McDonald, Chris McCann, Chris Eagles, Martin Paterson, Robbie Blake. Subs from: Diego Penny, Michael Duff, Joey Gudjonsson, Alan Mahon, Steven Thompson, Ade Akinbiyi, Jay Rodriguez.
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That run was an unfortunate one with stoppage time equalisers in two of them and a defeat courtesy of a ridiculous penalty decision at Coventry.
We played well in this game and were certainly the better of the two sides, although it was Derby that started the brighter of the two. And with just a quarter of an hour gone we were thankful that goalkeeper Brian Jensen had recovered from illness and taken his place on the bench. Danny Coyne had picked up an injury and couldn't continue and the Beast was back in the side after being out for five games.
Almost immediately we got what was the best chance of the match. Wade Elliott got down the right and put in the perfect cross for Gifton Noel-Williams. He looked a certain scorer but placed his header tamely into the hands of goalkeeper Stephen Bywater.
That started a period with the Clarets on top and those two, Wade and Gifton, were at the centre of most of it. But we couldn't get the breakthrough ahead of half time.
The second half was a quieter affair with chances at a premium, and much of the entertainment came from Little Billy with his touchline antics. At least we won't be seeing that this season.
It all ended 0-0, but it had been a good performance to take into Christmas.
The teams were;
Burnley: Danny Coyne (Brian Jensen 18), Stephen Foster, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Steve Jones, Gifton Noel-Williams, Kyle Lafferty. Subs not used: Alan Mahon, Garreth O'Connor, John Spicer, Graham Branch.
Derby: Stephen Bywater, Richard Jackson, Darren Moore, Dean Leacock, Paul Boertien, David Jones, Matt Oakley (Morten Bisgaard 72), Seth Johnson, Giles Barnes (Michael Johnson 88), Jon Stead (Arturo Lupoli 86), Steve Howard. Subs not used: Bob Malcolm, Mo Camara.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1991/92 | FAC | h | 2-2 | 18,722 | Harper Eli |
| . | . | a | 0-2 | . | abandoned 76 mins due to fog |
| . | . | a | 0-2 | 18,374 | . |
1994/95 | 1 | a | 0-4 | 13,922 | . |
| . | . | h | 3-1 | 11,534 | Davis Eyres Shaw |
1999/2000 | FAC | a | 1-0 | 16,030 | Cooke |
2002/03 | 2 | a | 2-1 | 22,343 | Blake(pen) Barton(og) |
| . | . | h | 2-0 | 15,063 | I Moore Taylor |
2003/04 | 1 | a | 0-2 | 21,960 | . |
| . | . | h | 1-0 | 16,189 | Branch |
2004/05 | C | h | 0-2 | 13,703 | . |
| . | . | a | 1-1 | 23,701 | Valois |
2005/06 | C | h | 2-2 | 12,243 | Akinbiyi Noel-WIlliams |
. | FAC | a | 1-2 | 12,713 | G O'Connor |
| . | . | a | 0-3 | 23,292 | . |
2006/07 | C | h | 0-0 | 12,825 | . |
| . | . | a | 0-1 | 23,122 | . |