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Sunderland were the visitors two weeks ago for our last home game and they arrived at Turf Moor not having lost a league game to us in over 36 years.
It's not quite so bad with Birmingham, we beat them at St. Andrew's as recently as April 2007, but they haven't lost a league fixture at the Turf since a Ray Hankin goal gave us a 1-0 win in April 1976.
Until August of this year and the win against Manchester United it had, for over 33 years, been our last top flight home win.
We haven't played them too often since, there have been five league meetings at Burnley along with one League Cup tie in 1982 which we did win 3-2 on our way to the semi-finals.
As we headed for the play offs last May, Birmingham joined Wolves in gaining automatic promotion to the Premier League just a year after they had suffered relegation.
Alex McLeish's team looked far from impressive in either of the two draws against us last season but a win on the last day of the season at Reading, and no one loses there these days, they finished three places above Sheffield United.
The summer saw McLeish make extensive changes to his squad with Ecuadorian Christian Benitez, at a reported £8.5 million, the most expensive of his buys from Santos Laguna. Other big signings were fellow Ecuadorian Giobanny Espenoza, Cardiff defender Roger Johnson, Scott Dann from Coventry and Scotland international Barry Ferguson from Rangers.
Having lost on the opening day of the season against Manchester United at Old Trafford they have had a steady run with two wins and a draw giving them seven points. That leaves them currently just three places below Burnley in the table.
Alex McLeish has been dealt a blow with the news that striker Christian Benitez is unavailable. He's back in Ecuador with his family after his father was injured in a serious car accident.
Also ruled out are Martin Taylor, Damien Johnson, Marcus Bent, David Murphy and Cameron Jerome, but there is good news with James McFadden, former Burnley target Stuart Parnaby and Franck Queudrue all returning to the squad after injury.
Last time out against Bolton they lined up: Joe Hart, Stephen Carr, Roger Johnson, Scott Dann, Gregory Vignal, Sebastian Larsson, Lee Bowyer, Teemu Tainio, Barry Ferguson, Keith Fahey, Christian Benitez. Subs: Maik Taylor, Liam Ridgewell, Lee Carsley, Giovanny Espinoza, Gary McSheffrey, Gary O'Connor, Kevin Phillps.
Right now we seem to be losing one player per game with Chris McCann and Martin Paterson now having been joined by Jay Rodriguez on the long term injury list although the good news for Owen Coyle is that captain Steven Caldwell came through sixty minutes in the reserves in midweek.
Caldwell was on the bench at White Hart Lane last Saturday, as was Michael Duff who was also returning from injury after playing the second half at Barnsley. Both will be in the squad tomorrow with voice of Burnley Alan Nixon suggesting this morning that Caldwell would start meaning Owen Coyle making his first unforced change since Andre Bikey came in for Christian Kalvenes against Manchester United.
If Caldwell does come in then Bikey is the most likely to drop out and that would give us the following Burnley team:
Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Steven Fletcher, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, Robbie Blake, David Nugent.
There are doubts about both Kevin McDonald and Fernando Guerrero who both picked up minior injuries in the reserves and if both miss out the substitutes will be selected from Diego Penny, Richard Eckersley, Michael Duff, Andre Bikey, David Edgar, Christian Kalvenes, Brian Easton, Chris Eagles, Steven Thompson.
We are just one week short of a year since Birmingham last played at Turf Moor. A Chris McCann goal midway through the first half gave us a deserved lead and the only surprise was that we didn't extend that lead in what was our best performance of the season to date.
Then, with thirteen minutes to go we won a corner and incredibly Birmingham broke quickly to score through Cameron Jerome for the most unlikely of points.
The teams were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Christian Kalvenes, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, Chris McCann, Steven Thompson (Chris Eagles 69), Martin Paterson (Robbie Blake 65). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Remco van der Schaaf, Jay Rodriguez.
Birmingham: Maik Taylor, Stuart Parnaby, Liam Ridgewell, Martin Taylor, David Murphy (Franck Queudrue 45), Sebastian Larsson, Lee Carsley, Kemy Agustien (James McFadden 58), Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, Garry O'Connor (Cameron Jerome 68), Kevin Phillips. Subs not used: Colin Doyle, Medhi Nafti.
That last meeting in the top flight, which we referred to earlier, in April 1976 was won with Ray Hankin scoring just three minutes after half time. Sheffield United were already dead and gone but despite the result we remained next to bottom in the league with Birmingham occupying the other relegation position.
The game saw a league debut for young left back Terry Pashley in place of the injured Keith Newton. For Newton it was the only game he missed all season.
The Burnley team that day was: Gerry Peyton, Derek Scott, Terry Pashley, Peter Noble, Jim Thomson, Billy Rodaway, Colin Morris, Brian Flynn, Ray Hankin, Paul Fletcher, Mike Summerbee.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
2000/01 | 1 | a | 2-3 | 19,641 | Cox Weller |
| . | . | h | 0-0 | 17,057 | . |
2001/02 | 1 | a | 3-2 | 18,426 | Little(2) I Moore |
| . | . | h | 0-1 | 13,504 | . |
2006/07 | C | h | 1-2 | 12,889 | McCann |
| . | . | a | 1-0 | 28,777 | Spicer |
2008/09 | C | h | 1-1 | 13,809 | McCann |
| . | . | a | 1-1 | 16,763 | Paterson |