Good Friday in the Italian suburb of Hertfordshire

I thought Good Friday football was a thing of the past until last season when Brighton asked us to bring the game forward 24 hours from the Saturday. It seemed a good idea to put an extra day in between the two Easter fixtures until we decided to chuck in a re-arranged game against Birmingham just three days before.

Prior to that, we have to go back to 1980 for our last game on Good Friday, a 1-0 defeat at Wrexham as we headed for relegation into the old Third Division.

So, something of a surprise that one year on from that Brighton game we find ourselves playing again on the Friday and this time with a trip to Watford.

Lee Grant is out to put a spanner in Watford's works

I'd suggest playing away is probably a good idea right now. As difficult as tomorrow's game looks there is no doubt that our away form continues to be better than that at home and never more so than recently with the disappointing run of performances and results at Turf Moor.

It will be tough. Watford are pushing for promotion but this will be a bit of a special game for some in the Burnley party and none more so than Sean Dyche. He's said he doesn't do old club scenarios but I am absolutely sure he'll get a little bit more satisfaction from this one than he will from any other win given the circumstances that cost him his job at Vicarage Road last summer.

In his Burnley team, the first name in his Burnley team, will be Lee Grant and he's another on the team coach who'll have no problem finding the ground. He's from Hemel Hempstead which is no more than about ten miles away.

He admits there will be a lot of friends and family there to watch him but, being Watford fans, hope he'll be on the losing side, but Grant, who trained with them as a youngster, is confident of getting something from the game.

"It'll be good to go back and see them but hopefully I can get one over on them as well," he said. "It's a big game for us and it'd be nice to go down there and put a spanner in the works of Watford's current run of good form.

"We can take a lot of confidence from how we played against Blackburn, getting up for a big game. We've got to prove that it wasn't just a case of derby day fever and us getting up for a big game."

Grant, out of contract in the summer, looks very likely to be the next one to put pen to paper on a new deal. He's left people in no doubt about what he wants and said: "I'm nice and settled here at the club. I've been here for three years now and hopefully it will be sorted out in the right way.

"I'm looking forward to next season as I believe things are heading in the right direction at this football club. It feels a little bit like a new club with the new management in place and there is a real freshness to the place."

He's very much settled in as our first choice goalkeeper and made his 100th league appearance for the Clarets back in the game at Bolton in February. He's missed only one league game since September 2010 and will be the first name on the team sheet again tomorrow.

Dyche will have to make at least one change to the team that came so close to getting the Clarets a first win against Blackburn since 1979. Ben Mee, having been sent off in that game, will serve his one match ban tomorrow.

Danny Lafferty, who was unfortunate to lose his place when Mee returned from injury recently, will almost certainly be the replacement at left back. I can't see there being many, if any, more changes to the team which will still be without the injured Dean Marney.

If Lafferty for Mee is the only change, we'll line up: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, Ross Wallace, Marvin Bartley, Chris McCann, Alex Kačaniklič, Martin Paterson, Charlie Austin. Subs from: Brian Jensen, Luke O'Neill, Kevin Long, Joseph Mills, Brian Stock, Junior Stanislas, Keith Treacy, Danny Ings, Sam Vokes.

Things have certainly changed considerably since we were last at Watford. The takeover has given them a real foreign flavour with all the loan players from Udinese which has divided opinion.

Ian Holloway took the opportunity to have a rant over it. There again, Holloway will take any opportunity to rant. On the other side, Mick McCarthy said, after they'd beaten his Ipswich side, that he didn't give two hoots about what they were doing.

The Football League appear to now and are ready to shut another stable door in the summer which will prevent any re-occurrence.

They will be without some of their squad. Goalkeeper, and captain, Manuel Almunia is out with a hamstring injury and Nyron Nosworthy, who scored at both ends last season, has had surgery this week on a ruptured Achilles.

Tommie Hoban (ankle), Neuton (shoulder) and John Eustace (back) are also out of the reckoning but there is better news of other players. Both Almen Abdi and Nathaniel Chalobah, who scored in the corresponding game at the Turf in December, have been passed fit with Lloyd Doyley and Matej Vydra, returning from international duty, both expected to be available.

It took them, with all their new players, a time to settle this season and it was into November when they were still hovering not too far above the relegation positions. But things have changed and they've been one of the teams very much in form although they have lost their last two games, against Blackpool at home and Sheffield Wednesday away, and this after landing a top two place.

They are certainly a team with goals in them. Vydra has twenty but they have two other players in double figures in the league; Troy Deeney has scored 14 goals and Abdi has ten.

I've just read that they've conceded more penalties than any other side in the division but we've conceded the least. Let's hope that stat is further enhanced.

Watford should select from: 30. Jonathan Bond, 12. Lloyd Doyley, 40. Joel Ekstrand, 27. Marco Cassetti, 38. Christian Battocchio, 8. Jonathan Hogg, 7. Mark Yeates, 21. Ikechi Anya, 9. Troy Deeney, 20. Matej Vydra, 34. Jack Bonham, 6. Fitz Hall, 18. Daniel Pudil, 36. Alexandre Geijo, 37. Geoffrey Mujangi Bia, 22. Almen Abdi, Nathaniel Chalobah, 41. Fernando Forestieri.

Last Time We Were There

Last season's game at Watford looked for a time as if it might be memorable but by the time we were coming out of Vicarage Road it was very much one we wanted to forget.

We led 2-0 within five minutes of the restart after half time but the game turned on its head and it was Watford who took the points with a 3-2 win.

Jay Rodriguez opened the scoring

We'd played well there a year earlier but we didn't on this occasion. Even so, we were in control, looked as though we might extend the lead further but then let Watford back into the game before collapsing completely.

Eddie Howe made two changes to the team that had been beaten by Millwall a week earlier with fit again Dean Marney coming back in as did Josh McQuoid who had been unavailable for the Millwall game being his parent club. The players to make way were Marvin Bartley and Keith Treacy.

On a shocking playing surface the first half offered little. Lee Grant made a couple of saves but other than that there was little to commend it until four minutes from the break when we went in front.

We'd got away with a defensive howler earlier in the half, Ben Mee being the culprit, but when they did likewise, Nyron Nosworthy hitting a clearance straight at Jay Rodriguez, the striker fired us in front.

It all looked plain sailing when Nosworthy headed a Ross Wallace free kick into his own goal on 50 minutes but then we gave away a soft goal, then another and then a third. Poor Brian Easton came on as a substitute for Michael Duff at half time and had a nightmare. He was never to play for us again.

Nosworthy redeemed himself with the first, substitute Alexander Kačaniklič, who had an outstanding second half, equalised with Troy Deeney wrapping up the win.

It could have been worse too as Watford just simply tore us apart for half an hour. Howe hit out at his players after the game, telling them to grow up fast. Something needed to be said after that last half hour.

The teams were;

Watford: Tomasz Kuszczak, Lee Hodson, Adrian Mariappa, Nyron Nosworthy, Lloyd Doyley, Prince Buaben (Alexander Kačaniklič  45), Jonathan Hogg, John Eustace, Sean Murray (Dale Bennett 89), Troy Deeney, Joe Garner. Subs not used: Scott Loach, Chris Iwelumo, Marcello Trotta.

Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff (Brian Easton 45), David Edgar, Ben Mee, Ross Wallace, Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Josh McQuoid (Danny Ings 82), Charlie Austin (Martin Paterson 68), Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Marvin Bartley.

Previous Games against Watford

Click HERE to see all previous results against Watford