Friday night in New York

Anything has to be better than Millmoor. It was not the best of grounds, the view was awful, once they'd put seats in it was even worse. Back in 2002, when the supporters club coaches arrived we were told we had to wade through a two feet deep flood to get to the turnstiles and, worst of all, our record there was poor with only one league win there, that in 1992/93, a 1-0 win courtesy of an Adrian Heath penalty.

Tonight is our first visit to the new ground and we'll be hoping to get back on track after the disappointing defeat against Reading last Saturday. It brought to an end a run of five games without defeat which included four wins and the draw at Derby in the previous game.

We dropped from third to sixth in the league and we've since fallen to seventh following Birmingham's midweek win at Brentford. I did read on social media that a Fulham win against Wolves would have also seen us drop a place; that's remarkable given Fulham currently sit four points behind us.

Michael Keane is expecting a tough game

I've said previously that the league table isn't important just now, but there is no doubt I'd preferred a win to have stayed third which would have kept us much closer to the top two Brighton and Middlesbrough who are currently six and five points ahead of us respectively.

Rotherham sacked manager Steve Evans this week and placed Eric Black in temporary charge, this after two wins in their last two games, and that hasn't gone unnoticed by Burnley defender Michael Keane.

He said yesterday: "They're coming in off the back of a few good results and obviously the manager has left which can sometimes fire the crowd up. With a new manager coming in he'll get the players going and we're expecting a tough game.

"We were all disappointed with the result against Reading but apart from the first ten minutes we played well. We've trained really well this week, trained hard and we're ready for the game."

Keane has led the way with the goals too. He's scored three and only Michael Duff from our back four has failed to find the net this season. "I think it's good that we can score goals from all areas", he added. It's not just me, Ben Mee has got a goal and Tendayi got one at the weekend.

"The strikers have a few goals but it's been chopped and changed quite a bit. I think it might help once we can settle down as we've had a few injuries. They'll all start hitting the ground running soon and once they get one or two, like they already have done, they'll start getting even more."

The good news for manager Sean Dyche is that he's likely to have Andre Gray to call on again tonight. He missed the Reading game having come off at Derby on the half hour with a hamstring problem. Thankfully, it's not a tear and he was apparently close to playing last week. Rouwen Hennings has proved an able deputy but should Gray be fit then I would expect him to return.

No other players are ready to return but we are certainly getting closer with defender Kevin Long and midfielders Dean Marney and Fredrik Ulvestad. Long and Ulvestad both played in last Monday's Under-21 Cup game; Long played almost the full game while Ulvestad did play ninety minutes and looked good.

Marney was expected to play in a behind closed doors game yesterday against Liverpool, but the game was called off and he'll likely feature next Monday when we play a game against Aston Villa.

We haven't made any changes to the league team this season other than up front; it's been Tom Heaton in goal with the same back four and the same four in midfield. It wouldn't be a surprise if that changed tonight given Joey Barton's introduction last week as a substitute. I think I'd probably be more surprised if he didn't start although I do think Michael Kightly, who has been one of our better players in away games this season, is the likely player to drop out.

Our team could be: Tom Heaton, Tendayi Darikwa, Michael Duff, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Joey Barton, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Sam Vokes, Andre Gray. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Matt Lowton, Tom Anderson, Stephen Ward, Matt Taylor, Michael Kightly, Rouwen Hennings, Chris Long.

Rotherham returned to the Championship after nine years at the end of the 2013/14 season via the play-offs. They beat Preston in the semi-final before drawing the final 2-2 against Leyton Orient and going on to win on penalties.

That was Steve Evans' first season in charge after replacing Andy Scott in April 2012 and it was the second season at their New York Stadium after they'd played the four previous seasons in exile at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield once they'd departed Millmoor.

They ended their last season back in 21st place, but they were five points clear of the bottom three and that would have been more had they not been deducted three points for fielding an ineligible player.

I'm not so sure their achievement in staying up warranted the big champagne celebrations at the ground usually reserved for Champions, but they were a side expected to go down yet they stayed up while two former Premier League clubs Blackpool and Wigan joined Millwall in departing to League One.

This season wasn't going too well. They were beaten 4-1 at home by the MK Franchise on the opening day and after seven games had just two points from a 0-0 home draw against Preston and a 1-1 draw at Charlton.

But then came two successive wins. Two weeks ago they beat Cardiff 2-1 at home, helped by referee Keith Hill's bizarre decision to send off Cardiff goalkeeper David Marshall, and last week won 2-0 at Birmingham.

That had lifted them out of the bottom three so this week's news that they had parted company with Evans seemed a strange one. The chairman said he and the club wanted to go in opposite directions. It does beg the question as to which one of them might have wanted to head downwards.

Former Coventry manager Eric Black has been placed in temporary charge with Nigel Clough currently the bookies' favourite to replace Evans. Black isn't new to this role; he's carried out these particular duties at Birmingham, Sunderland and Coventry previously.

I'm sure he'll be keen to continue the form they showed at Birmingham, the first time they've won back to back games in the Championship since promotion.

That team was: Lee Camp, Lewis Buxton, Joe Mattock, Danny Collins, Jonson Clarke-Harris, Farrend Rawson, Joe Newell, Tony Andreu, Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, Matt Derbyshire, Richard Smallwood. Subs: Adam Collin, Kirk Broadfoot, Emmanuel Ledesma, Greg Halford, Grant Ward, Danny Ward, Chris Maguire. 

Last Time We Were There

Steve Cotterill was the new manager last time we played an away game against Rotherham. We couldn't have known it then but the first away game of the 2004/05 season proved to be our last ever visit to Millmoor.

Danny Coyne saves from former Claret Paul Shaw

It wasn't an inspiring night to be honest and I don't think many supporters of either team would have been surprised to leave with the game having ended in a 0-0 draw.

Having said that, Burnley were by far the better of the two sides. Rotherham didn't offer too much and when they did they found our new look back four and goalkeeper in outstanding form.

Robbie Blake came closest to scoring for us with a shot just wide of Mike Pollitt's goal, the future Claret lining up against former Clarets Paul Shaw and John Mullin, and Shaw came closer to a goal for Rotherham than any other player but was denied by Danny Coyne.

Robbie Blake fires wide for the Clarets

Neither side made a substitution the night but that wasn't any real surprise with us having three youngsters making up the numbers with first team coach Mark Yates on standby.

The teams were;

Rotherham: Mike Pollitt, Robbie Stockdale, Chris Swailes, Phil Gilchrist, Scott Minto, Chris Sedgwick, John Mullin, Darren Garner, Paul Shaw, Michael Proctor, Richie Barker. Subs not used: Gary Montgomery, Paolo Vernazza, Rob Scott, Paul Warne, Paul Hurst.

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Richard Chaplow, Tony Grant, Micah Hyde, Graham Branch, Ian Moore, Robbie Blake. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, Matt O’Neill, Joel Pilkington, Ryan Townsend.

Previous Games against Rotherham

Click HERE to see all previous results against Rotherham (no cup games shown prior to season 1986/87)