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Just three days into the new season and we are in cup action with the Carling (League) Cup back in the first midweek of the season for the first time since 2003. Then it was Chesterfield, and a late night with extra time and penalties when new goalkeeper Brian Jensen was the shoot out hero.
It is our first tie against Grimsby in this competition since 1968, on that occasion we drew 1-1 at Blundell Park before hammering them 6-0 in the replay, and that led to going on to play in the semi-final. Interestingly we've since met them twice in the FA Cup. In 1974 a 3rd round win saw us reach the semi-final and more recently a tie in the same round in 2003 was the start of a run that led to the quarter-final tie at Watford.
We'll certainly be hoping for something better in this competition than last season when we went out at the first hurdle against Hartlepool. At the same time Grimsby were suffering a 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Crewe.
Grimsby made a bit of a disastrous start to last season after ending 2005/06 in the play offs. Under new manager Graham Rodger they found themselves third from bottom in early November and that led to Rodger losing his job. They turned to Alan Buckley, who had twice managed them before, and he eventually steadied the ship and they ended the season in the same 15th position in League Two as we occupied in the Championship.
Buckley has set about reshaping the team and a number of players have left since the end of last season. Including such as Ricky Ravenhill and Michael Reddy. Meanwhile long serving player John McDermott finally hung up his boots after over 750 games for his only club. Buckley has so far added three new players to his squad. They are:
James Hunt from Bristol Rovers
Gary Montgomery from Rotherham
Their new season started with a 1-1 home draw against Notts County on Saturday when Ryan Bennett gave them an early lead whilst of course the Clarets were beating West Brom at home.
This is a tie we need to get through and hopefully win a seeded place in the next round with hopes of a bigger game to come. It is time for another cup run.
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He's from Bradford but he joined Oldham as a youth player and progressed through to earn himself a full time deal. He finally made his first team debut for Oldham in February 2000 in a 3-1 home defeat against Gillingham.
He remained with the Latics until the summer of 2005 although was never able to fully establish himself in the side. He played in 80 league games for them but only 45 of them were starts. He spent the last two months of his last season with them away from Boundary Park, just down the road at Bury during a loan spell.
He was used as a sub more often then he started but it was thought he might become a permanent Bury player that summer. Instead he signed for Stockport on a free transfer and he made 28 starts during the following season as they fought successfully against relegation to the Conference.
Not in Jim Gannon's plans he was on the move again last summer, and this time to Grimsby. Again he was in and out of the side, but he's finally established himself in Alan Buckley's team and was in the starting line up for the Notts County game and he's very much expected to be in the team for tonight's game.
Alan Buckley is expected to name a side similar to the one that drew with Notts County, in fact the only likely change is up front where Danny North is expected to replace Isaiah Rankin. If that's the case expect Grimsby to line up:
Phil Barnes, Ryan Bennett, Nick Fenton, Justin Whittle, Tom Newey, Peter Till, James Hunt, Paul Bolland, Danny Boshell, Ciaran Toner, Danny North. Subs: Gary Montgomery, Jamie Clarke, Peter Bore, Isaiah Rankin, Gary Jones.
Three years ago, when Steve Cotterill name his first ever Carling Cup team to play at Bury, he said he wouldn't be making any changes from the league team because he had no players to bring in to change it.
Things have changed in three years and that's exactly what we can expect tonight with probably most of the players who didn't get on the pitch on Saturday playing a part. That will certainly include Steve Jones, who was unavailable on Saturday for family reasons, and latest signing David Unsworth who will be thrown in at the deep end according to the manager despite lacking some fitness.
I'm sure we can expect a good number of changes, although with a lack of defenders right now I would suspect some of those who played on Saturday will line up tonight. Trying to predict the side is too difficult and the only other thing we know with some certainty is that captain Steve Caldwell will be missing. We'll select from the rest of the squad which is:
Gabor Kiraly, Stephen Foster, Jon Harley, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, James O'Connor, Joey Gudjonsson, Ade Akinbiyi, Andy Gray, Wade Elliott, Brian Jensen, Steve Jones, John Spicer, Chris McCann, Kyle Lafferty, Alan Mahon, Jay Rodriguez, Robbie Blake, Besart Berisha, Stephen Jordan, David Unsworth.
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We'd lost our league game there earlier in the season by the ridiculous 6-5 scoreline and we went into this cup tie with something of a crisis with injuries and suspensions, so much so that Earl Davis was recalled from a loan at Stalybridge to take his place on the bench.
We were soon 2-0 up with first goals of the season from both Paul Weller and Alan Moore but we were so much on top it could have been at least five. Apart from the goals Grimsby cleared three off the line with last ditch clearances and we reckoned we'd at least score as many as we did in the league game.
This was as good as we'd seen from Burnley in ages. Apart from the two scorers, Grimsby were finding it impossible to deal with Tony Grant and our front two of Ian Moore and Robbie Blake. But two goals in front we decided we'd done enough and sat back on it, this long before half time. It handed the initiative to Grimsby who, despite being a poor side, were being encouraged back into the game.
We lost Paul Weller to injury, and he'd been our most influential player. It was still 2-0 at half time but on the hour, with Grimsby now well on top, they got a helping hand from our old friend Graham Laws who astonishingly awarded a penalty. Said Stan.
The thought that a goal back might spark us was wishful thinking and we continued to allow Grimsby to come forward. We almost got away with it but right at the death, three minutes from time, came the equaliser from Darren Mansaram. It was shocking defending that allowed him to get his shot in, but we were used to that in this season of throwing one in.
It all finished level, and a Turf Moor replay which we won 4-0 and as comfortably as the scored suggests. The teams for the first game at Blundell Park were;
Grimsby: Danny Coyne, John McDermott (Jonathan Rowan 85), Simon Ford, Georges Santos (Steve Chettle 54), Tony Gallimore, Terry Cooke, Stacy Coldicott, Paul Groves, Stuart Campbell, Darren Mansaram, David Soames (Christopher Thompson 75). Subs not used: Shaun Allaway, Iain Ward.
Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Mark McGregor, Ian Cox, Arthur Gnohere, Graham Branch, Ian Moore, Paul Weller (Paul Cook 37), Tony Grant, Alan Moore, Robbie Blake, Dimitri Papadopoulos (Gordon Armstrong 90). Subs not used: Nik Michopoulos, Earl Davis, Andrew Waine.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1988/89 | 4 | h | 1-0 | 7,136 | Oghani |
| . | . | a | 0-1 | 4,856 | . |
1989/90 | 4 | h | 1-1 | 5,647 | Jakub |
| . | . | a | 2-4 | 5,973 | Francis(2) |
1994/95 | 1 | a | 2-2 | 7,084 | Davis Parkinson |
| . | . | a | 0-2 | 10,511 | . |
1997/98 | 2 | a | 1-4 | 4,829 | Weller |
| . | AM | a | 1-1 | 6,064 | Payton |
| . | . | h | 0-2 | 10,257 | . |
| . | 2 | h | 2-1 | 8,256 | Little Payton |
2000/01 | 1 | h | 1-1 | 15,413 | Cooke |
| . | . | a | 0-1 | 6,044 | . |
2001/02 | 1 | h | 1-0 | 18,535 | Taylor |
| . | . | a | 1-3 | 9,275 | Briscoe |
2002/03 | 1 | a | 5-6 | 5,620 | Taylor(2) I Moore Blake(2 1pen) |
| . | FA | a | 2-2 | 5,350 | A Moore Weller |
| . | . | h | 4-0 | 5,436 | I Moore(2) Little Blake(pen) |
| . | 1 | h | 1-1 | 13,455 | A Moore |