The away game against them was also a midweek affair, and a very special night it was as a Sam Vokes penalty and a Rob Jones own goal gave us a 2-0 win and a place at the top of the Championship.
We went above QPR on goal difference on a night when we knew a win would take us into first place with Harry Redknapp's team's game at Wigan called off due to their European commitments.
I wondered how long it would last and incredibly it was the defeat at Huddersfield that saw us lose top spot some eight and a half weeks later. We had another week and a half at the top, including the Christmas period, but defeat at Middlesbrough brought it to an end.
We've occasionally been in third place but for much of the time it's been second with Leicester, on an incredible run, steaming ahead at the top of the league. Tonight, with nine games of the season remaining, we are ten points clear of third and already the question of how many points will be needed is being asked.
Ashley Barnes is happy to have been given his chance |
I'm sure Sean Dyche is thinking about it too but publicly it is still one game at a time for him and that means total concentration on tonight's game against Doncaster.
One player very much looking forward to the game is Ashley Barnes. Signed in January, he made his debut as a substitute at Yeovil the day after and his first ten appearances for the club were from the bench.
But he's grabbed his chance in the last two games, getting his first goal at Charlton, and said yesterday: "I've come into the side and hopefully I can score as many goals as possible between now and the end of the season. We've got Doncaster on Tuesday and hopefully I can get on the scoresheet again.
"I am happy to play anywhere the manager wants me to play and to have the chance in the team now is a good opportunity for me to show what I can do."
Barnes explained the plan: "It starts in training and we can all see the rewards. We all train hard so we can go hard in games. Everyone is ready and waiting to play and when we are called upon we are ready to go.
"It's been very exciting for me personally, jumping in with the boys that have been on fire all through the season. All that is in our minds is Tuesday now though and we have to continue to go one game at a time."
Barnes will start; that looks certain. I was looking at the team potentials and when all are fit it looks as though ten places are determined with just one of the wide positions currently left open to debate.
Michael Kightly had the position for weeks but was replaced by Ross Wallace at Birmingham. Two games later and Junior Stanislas was the, perhaps, surprise choice at Charlton whist Kightly came on and did well for the last quarter of an hour. And then there's Keith Treacy who has done so well when called upon recently.
I would think there is every chance that Junior Stanislas will get another start. He did well at Charlton and set up that first goal.
Chris Baird will make his home debut as he continues to deputise for Kieran Trippier and Michael Duff is expected to take his place despite leaving the field with what looked to be cramp right at the end of the game at The Valley.
I expect the team to be: Tom Heaton, Chris Baird, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Scott Arfield, Dean Marney, David Jones, Junior Stanislas, Sam Vokes, Ashley Barnes. Subs: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, David Edgar, Steven Hewitt, Ross Wallace, Michael Kightly, Keith Treacy.
Our opponents Doncaster came up at the end of last season under the management of former Claret Brian Flynn. He immediately handed over to new man Paul Dickov and became the club's director of football.
It was always expected to be a tough season for them but they've more than held their heads above water and only after losing at QPR on New Year's Day did they drop into the bottom three. The climbed out again two games later and have not been there since.
Currently they are in 19th place but with a healthy eight point advantage over third from bottom and much of that has been due to a recent good run of form that has seen them win three times and draw once in their last four games.
Doncaster's last defeat was a heavy 5-0 reverse at Bournemouth on the first day of this month but they've since beaten Huddersfield, Watford and Sheffield Wednesday and drawn at Nottingham Forest. Only one goal has been conceded in those four games.
Chris Brown and Billy Sharp, now at Doncaster for a third time, have both scored twice in this run of games and Brown, one of the Sunderland film stars, is their leading goalscorer this season with eight league goals.
Manager Dickov has all but said it will be an unchanged team tonight from the one that beat Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday. Dickov said: "The good news is that we can have an unchanged side but also have Marc De Val, Dean Furman and Theo Robinson chomping at the bit for a bit of the action."
Doncaster, therefore, will line up: Sam Johnstone, James Coppinger, Paul Quinn, Abdoulaye Meite, James Husband, Mark Duffy, Richie Wellens, Paul Keegan, David Cotterill, Chris Brown, Billy Sharp. Subs: Ross Turnbull, Dean Furman, Luke McCullough, Marc De Val, Theo Robinson, Enda Stevens, Lewis Ferguson.
Last Time They Were Here
With Doncaster in League One last season we have to go back two seasons for their last visit to Turf Moor, and that was Boxing Day 2011.
Not far short of 17,000 were inside Turf Moor (in the days before the grading of matches for pricing) and it proved to be a good Boxing Day for the Clarets as we ran out 3-0 winners. We'd won at Barnsley a year earlier and this victory made it the first time in over 30 years that we'd won successive Boxing Day games (we won again against Derby a year later to make it three).
Just the one goal for Jay Rod |
Doncaster games had been disappointing in recent years with Sean O'Driscoll always being cautious in the games, but with Dean Saunders and his all stars (plus Brian Stock) it was a much more open game.
We were very much the better side in the first half but it took us until the 37th minute to go in front, and then with some good fortune. Referee David Webb awarded us a penalty, our first of the season, as Chris McCann saw a run into the box blocked by Doncaster defender Sam Hird.
He protested that he was doing no more than standing his ground but Webb disagreed and Jay Rodriguez converted the penalty to put the Clarets 1-0 up.
Doncaster had offered little but just before half time came close to an equaliser when Billy Sharp headed a Stock cross onto the foot of the post.
They tried to get back at us in the second half but we never really looked like conceding and Dean Marney was prompting us in midfield in what was his first home start since September. He'd been played in away games but Marvin Bartley had been preferred at Turf Moor.
A 1-0 win looked on the cards until six minutes from the end, after which we gave the scoreline a more comprehensive look.
Martin Paterson got the second; his first Burnley goal for 13 months and his first Turf Moor goal since the Premier League. When Jay Rod hit a shot onto the bar it was Paterson who reacted to head home before throwing off his shirt and getting himself a yellow card. In today's Premier League it would have been Jay's goal; it had crossed the line before bouncing out to Pato.
Hird was involved with the first goal, giving away the penalty, and he was very much involved with the stoppage time third. Kieran Trippier got in a cross from the right which Jay headed towards goal and it deflected off Hird and in for an own goal.
On another day it would have been a Rodriguez hat trick, but officially he ended with just one goal in a 3-0 win. Just under a month earlier we were minutes away from a place in the bottom three, now, with five wins in six games, we'd moved up to ninth, just three points from the play-off positions.
The teams were;
Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff (Brian Easton 62), David Edgar, Ben Mee, Ross Wallace, Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Junior Stanislas (Marvin Bartley 69), Martin Paterson (Charlie Austin 85), Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Jon Stewart, Sam Vokes.
Doncaster: Gary Woods, James O'Connor, Sam Hird, Habib Beye, Herita Ilunga, James Coppinger, Brian Stock, Simon Gillett (Kyle Bennett 79), Giles Barnes (James Hayter 86), El Hadji Diouf (Herold Goulon 86), Billy Sharp. Subs not used: Pascal Chimbonda, George Friend.
Previous Games against Doncaster
Last 20 Years | |||||
Season | Comp | Ven | Res | Att | Scorers |
2008/09 | Championship | h | 0-0 | 12,173 | |
a | 1-3 | 14,020 | Paterson | ||
2010/11 | Championship | h | 1-1 | 13,655 | Cork |
a | 0-1 | 9,893 | |||
2012/13 | Championship | h | 3-0 | 16,756 | Rodriguez(pen), Paterson, Hird(og) |
a | 2-1 | 8,350 | McQuoid, Austin(pen) | ||
2013/14 | Championship | a | 2-0 | 7,836 | Vokes(p) Jones(og) |
Click HERE to see all previous results against Doncaster