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Now we are back, after a year in the sun, and looking to make a positive start with expectation high with the players and manager, and in particular the manager, under pressure to give the fans another good season.
Is a win vital? In terms of our promotion hopes the answer has to be no. Burnley have won promotion on seven occasions in post war football. In three of those seasons we've started with a draw and in three others we've lost our opening game. The only time we did start the season with a win and go on to win promotion was in the 1993/94 season.
But a win would be just the sort of start we want, not vital but the sooner we can get our first win and get the points total moving towards the sort of figure we need then the better it will be for us.
The messages coming out of Turf Moor from players and manager are positive. It looks as though the pre-season has been a good one, but pre-season is over, from today it's for real.
Whilst Burnley have been getting over the disappointment of relegation, it's been a similar tale at the City Ground with Forest, having ended last season in third place in the Championship, recovering from missing out to Blackpool in the play offs.
It was a big turn round last season, the first under manager Billy Davies. They'd ended the 2008/09 season close to the bottom of the table and for a while looked to be threatened with an immediate return to League One following their promotion in 2008.
Having survived, they exceeded all expectations with their third place finish. They had a chance of automatic promotion but a disappointing run in left them twelve points behind second place West Brom and therefore that play off semi-final against a Blackpool side who had ended the season with nine points less than Forest.
A rush in the transfer market was expected during the summer, but to date that hasn't happened. They quickly turned Radi Majeski's loan from Polonia Warsaw into a permanent signing at £1 million but that's been it until yesterday when they filled the problem position of left-back with the loan capture of Chelsea's Ryan Bertrand.
Bertrand is no stranger to Burnley although this will be his first appearance at Turf Moor. He played for Norwich against us at Carrow Road in each of our last two visits and last season was in the Reading side that knocked us out of the FA Cup.
Like Burnley they are expected to be one of the front runners, and for both sides this couldn't have really been a tougher start. The one thing that might hold Forest back is the continuing, perceived, problems between the board and Davies. When he had similar problems at Preston and Derby it ended in his departure from those two clubs, and there have been strong rumours his days could be numbered at Forest.
It's often difficult trying to determine what team the opposition might start with and it is certainly doubly difficult at the beginning of the season when there are no previous games to look at.
Davies is without David McGoldrick because of a shoulder injury whilst they are hoping that Wes Morgan, Kelvin Wilson, Paul McKenna, Paul Anderson and Dexter Blackstock will all shake off knocks ahead of the game.
Julian Bennett is fit again having been out since Boxing Day 2008. He wasn't expected to be involved and certainly won't now. He's been loaned out to Crystal Palace for six months.
Forest ended their pre-season last Saturday with a 3-2 defeat at Swindon. Their starting line up for that game was Lee Camp, Chris Gunter, Chris Cohen, Luke Chambers, Kelvin Wilson, Garath McCleary, Guy Moussi, Lewis McGugan, Radi Majewski, Rob Earnshaw, Dele Adebola.
We went to Huddersfield last week believing that Brian Laws would be giving us some sort of clues with the team he turned out for the first half against Stoke.
After the game he said we shouldn't read anything into it, that there were no clues, so perhaps I shouldn't expect us to start with anything like that starting line up. I do though, and I wouldn't expect there to be many changes from that team.
We know Chris McCann is out again, awful news for both player and club, but Laws confirmed last night that there were no other injuries. There had been some concern over Ross Wallace but he's been involved in every training session this week and is fully fit and ready to play.
The team that started last week was: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Andre Bikey, Michael Duff, Danny Fox, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Dean Marney, Martin Paterson, Steven Thompson, Ross Wallace.
If that is the starting line up, or close to it, I would certainly expect Lee Grant, Chris Eagles, Jay Rodriguez, Chris Iwelumo and David Edgar to be in the match day squad.
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Nottingham Forest's last visit to Turf Moor was not one they will particularly care to remember. Burnley were on the last lap towards promotion and went into the game having won the previous two league games at Blackpool and at home to Crystal Palace.
That Palace win was by a 4-2 scoreline after we'd been 2-0 down, and we could never have known it then but we wouldn't concede another goal at Turf Moor until Darren Bent scored for Sunderland. In total we scored 19 home goals without conceding and after getting the first four against Palace the next five came three days later against Forest.
The game was played in poor conditions due to a strong wind and, typically for March, on a poor Turf Moor surface, but it wasn't going to stop the Clarets who scored some goals of real quality.
It didn't start well. Steven Thompson was forced off on a stretcher early in the game and was replaced by Jay Rodriguez. It was a blow, Thompson was in good form, but Jay Rod was to enjoy his day.
The first half was a dull affair to be truthful but it was lit up by two pieces of brilliance from our little magician Robbie Blake. With just under 20 minutes gone we won a free kick out on the left hand side and Robbie hit it right into the top corner of the keeper's far post.
Six minutes before half time he teased his way through on the left before setting up Wade Elliott to double the lead.
Within ten minutes of the start of the second half it was all over as a contest as the Clarets scored twice more to lead 4-0. Firstly Clarke Carlisle headed home a Martin Paterson cross following a free kick and then four minutes later it was Jay Rod's moment.
He jinked his way into the penalty box on the left hand side and then brilliantly curled a shot beyond Paul Smith in the Forest goal. It was his fifth goal of the season, and all of them in the same goal at the Jimmy Mac end of the ground.
Right at the end Joey Gudjonsson, like Jay on as a sub, completed the scoring with a powerful shot from just inside the area to give us our first five goal haul since the crazy 6-5 defeat at Grimsby in 2002.
The teams were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Rhys Williams, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Christian Kalvenes, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Chris McCann (Joey Gudjonsson 69), Robbie Blake (Chris Eagles 67), Martin Paterson, Steven Thompson (Jay Rodriguez 8). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Kevin McDonald.
Nottingham Forest: Paul Smith, Luke Chambers, Wes Morgan, James Perch, Chris Gunter, Garath McCleary (Joe Garner 45), Isaiah Osbourne (Lewis McGugan 78), Chris Cohen, Gary McSheffrey (Matt Thornhill 75), Nathan Tyson, Robert Earnshaw. Subs not used: Paddy Gamble, Brendan Moloney.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
2000/01 | 1 | a | 0-5 | 17,195 | . |
| . | . | h | 1-0 | 17,876 | Payton(pen) |
2001/02 | 1 | a | 0-1 | 24,016 | . |
| . | . | h | 1-1 | 15,085 | Gnohere |
2002/03 | 1 | h | 1-0 | 13,869 | Briscoe |
| . | . | a | 0-2 | 25,403 | . |
2003/04 | 1 | h | 0-3 | 12,530 | . |
| . | . | a | 1-1 | 26,885 | Chaplow |
2004/05 | 1 | h | 1-0 | 11,622 | Blake |
| . | . | a | 0-1 | 24,165 | . |
2008/09 | C | a | 2-1 | 20,504 | Alexander(2 1pen) |
| . | . | h | 5-0 | 13,055 | Blake Elliott Carlisle Rodriguez Gudjonsson |