Clarets need to do some Lion taming

This is Millwall's third season back in the Championship after they won the 2009/10 League One Play Off Final against Swindon in a game that Charlie Austin will remember well. He missed a good chance for his team in a game that ended 1-0 in Millwall's favour.

Since they returned, we've done well enough against them at the Den, drawing 1-1 on a day when Clarke Carlisle was harshly sent off earlier in the game, and last season winning 1-0. It's been very much a different story at home with 3-0 and 3-1 defeats.

All three of the goals we scored against them were scored by Jay Rodriguez and the last players, prior to Jay, to net against Millwall were Nathan Dyer and Wade Elliott who scored within two minutes of each other to give us a 2-1 home win in November 2005 on a night when referee Richard Beeby sent off four players.

"We need to battle for it early doors" - Ross Wallace

Move on seven years and a Turf Moor win against them is very much overdue and also very much needed. The win at Derby last week lifted us to 16th in the table but we are still nervously just three points ahead of Millwall who occupy the highest relegation position.

I know the league table doesn't mean too much with seven games gone but the sooner we give ourselves some more distance from the struggling clubs the better things will be, and the next few days gives us a real chance with Sheffield Wednesday, just one place above Millwall, visiting on Tuesday.

We've got to put Tuesday's awful showing at Swindon behind us. The good news is that Martin Paterson will return, probably for the first hour, and there is every chance that both Jason Shackell and Junior Stanislas will have recovered in time to play.

Shackell was the summer's marquee signing. We paid in excess of a million for him but, since the home win against Bolton, he's struggled to find any consistency. He had another disappointing game back at his old club Derby last week but we later learned he'd played on one leg.

We need Shackell to find the sort of form that had Eddie Howe pursuing him for over a year and we need his organisational skills in there as we concede bad goal after bad goal. Howe has said it is only at set pieces but that really isn't the case; we look vulnerable every time a team attacks us.

Ross Wallace is one player able to look back at the two previous games against them at home. "They have always been a sticky team for us," he said. "They are a big strong side and well organised so we will have to be on our mettle and battle for it early doors.

"Last season it was a very tough game. They pressed us and got in our faces, so we will have to match that, especially early on in the game, and hopefully our quality will come through in the end.

"Last season was disappointing when we lost a lot of points at home when we could have maybe sneaked in the play offs. This season hasn't been too bad and hopefully come Saturday we can get another three points."

Wallace is likely to line up in a Burnley team that, should Shackell and Stanislas come through, be unchanged from that which won at Derby last Saturday. They were two of five players replaced on Tuesday at Swindon and it is certain that all of Lee Grant, Dean Marney and Martin Paterson will be back.

I expect us to line up: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, David Edgar, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Ross Wallace, Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Junior Stanislas, Martin Paterson, Charlie Austin. Subs from: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Kevin Long, Joseph Mills, Brian Stock, Marvin Bartley, Cameron Stewart, Sam Vokes.

It's not been the best of starts to the season for Millwall. They come into this game having lost five of their seven league fixtures so far. They've gone down at home to Blackpool, Cardiff and Brighton and lost on the road at Sheffield Wednesday and Hull. They've won their two other games at Peterborough and at home against Middlesbrough.

They weren't even able to progress beyond the first round of the Capital One Cup, going out on penalties at home against Crawley.

Manager Kenny Jackett has rightly said that it is defensively where they've had the problem and the league table shows they've conceded 15 goals in the league and only Peterborough and Sheffield Wednesday, both with 16, have conceded more.

They've scored nine league goals with midfielder Liam Trotter and striker Andy Keogh both having scored twice. Three of those four goals came in the 3-1 win against Middlesbrough.

Other scorers include Darius Henderson and New Zealander Chris Wood who has recently signed on loan from West Brom. Wood spent most of last season in the Championship with Birmingham and Bristol City, netting a total of 12 goals, nine of them in the first half of the season for Birmingham.

Jackett could recall either or both of defenders Paul Robinson and Jack Smith while three other players, Scott Malone, Shane Lowry and Karleigh Osborne face late fitness checks after all three suffered injuries last week against Brighton.

One player virtually certain not to start is Tam Mkandawire. He's returning from injury and played in their under-21 league fixture this week against Swansea. Jackett has confirmed he's nowhere near the fitness levels required as yet but could be named as a substitute.

That could mean a number of changes to the team that lost last Saturday in that home games against Brighton. That team was: 1. David Forde, 2. Alan Dunne, 28. Scott Malone (5. Paul Robinson 62), 26. Nadjim Abdou, 12. Shane Lowry, 27. Karleigh Osborne, 6. Liam Trotter, 4. Josh Wright (19. Chris Taylor 45), 39. Chris Wood, 20. Andy Keogh (7. Darius Henderson 76), 14. James Henry. Subs not used: 33. Maik Taylor, 3. Danny Shittu, 11. Shaun Batt, 21. Jack Smith.

Last Time They Were Here

Having lost 3-0 at home to Millwall in the 2010/11 season, Burnley went looking to turn the tables when they returned to the Turf in February this year. What was proving to be a difficult season at home had picked up with three wins and two draws in five games, but that run came to an end as we turned in a very poor performance.

We'd lost at Reading the week before and Eddie Howe made two enforced changes to the side. Dean Marney had just become a dad for the first time and he was with his wife who had lost a lot of blood. Marvin Bartley came in for Marney with Keith Treacy replacing Josh McQuoid who hadn't been given permission to play against his own club.

A stoppage time consolation penalty from Jay Rod

It was a shocking start from Burnley and the only surprise was that it took Millwall all of fifteen minutes to take the lead. By then they'd already hit the bar and seen another effort cleared off the line, which was later shown to have gone in.

And when they came forward again, David Edgar gifted them the ball and when Ben Mee couldn't rescue it Andy Keogh stepped in to hit a powerful shot into the top corner.

Chris McCann was our best player and did all he could to get us going forward, but on the half hour Millwall doubled their lead. Millwall won a corner that was headed clear by Mee. It dropped invitingly for Josh Wright some 30 yards from goal but the finish from the 22-year-old was sensational. It was his first goal for Millwall and one he'll probably never better.

Things got worse. McCann limped off before half time and in the break both Treacy and Charlie Austin were hauled off by manager Eddie Howe.

Millwall were happy to let us have the ball. We didn't threaten them and they looked content to keep the score at 2-0. Even so, they always looked the more likely and did get a third with twenty minutes remaining. Edgar played Harry Kane onside and he went through to score.

We hadn't forced David Forde into a save. When we did, in the 89th minute, the ground had emptied. It was Ross Wallace who forced the save. But Forde had more action to come. Bartley was fouled in the box and we won a 93rd minute penalty that Jay Rodriguez hit right down the middle to at least get us on the scoresheet, but we could have no complaints at the 3-0 defeat.

The teams were;

Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Ben Mee, Ross Wallace, Marvin Bartley, Chris McCann (Martin Paterson 39), Keith Treacy (Brian Easton 45), Charlie Austin (Danny Ings 45), Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Zavon Hines.

Millwall: David Forde, Alan Dunne, Shane Lowry, Paul Robinson, Tony Craig, James Henry, Jimmy Abdou, Josh Wright (Scott Barron 74), Hamer Bouazza (Liam Feeney 82), Harry Kane (Darius Henderson 88), Andy Keogh. Subs not used: Ryan Allsop, Dany N'Guessan.

Previous Games against Millwall

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