Here we go again - the big kick off

Last updated : 07 August 2015 By Tony Scholes

It's not the first time we've started our season at Elland Road but we have to go back over half a century for the last occasion. That was in 1959 when goals from Brian Pilkington, John Connelly and Ray Pointer gave us a 3-2 win.

The season ended in triumph for us with our second league title. For Leeds it was not quite so go; they were relegated with Luton.

It really is back to reality again after our season in the Premier League. We've got a return to the Championship with local derbies against Blackburn, Bolton and Preston to look forward too while trips to Huddersfield and tomorrow's at Leeds don't see us travelling very far.

It will certainly be a much different looking Burnley side than the one that last played a Championship game with only Tom Heaton, Michael Duff, Ben Mee, Scott Arfield, Michael Kightly and David Jones expected to play having played in that final game of the 2013/14 season at Reading.

George Boyd can't wait for the start of the season

We will very likely have two debutants in Tendayi Darikwa and Jelle Vossen but it was George Boyd, a 2014 summer window signing, who spoke ahead of the game.

He thinks playing in the Premier League last season will have given the squad the experience to push for a return, and he and his team mates are ready for the big kick off.

"We can't wait," he said. "I think every football fan in the country is looking forward to the start of the season on Saturday and we're no different.

"Playing in the Premier League last season gives you that drive to succeed and get straight back there. That's where everyone wants to be and it's massive around the world.

"I think we're better for the experience of playing against world class players and the pressure of that can only help us in trying to get promoted. The Championship is a lot more brutal and physical. It's a tough division but we showed last season that we can mix it so I think we're suited for that.

"We've got a lot of Championship experience in our team as well so we know what it's about."

Boyd kicked off last season with Hull and it was the last match of the previous season, in May 2013, that he last played in the Championship when he lined up for Hull against Cardiff with both of the two clubs going up to the Premier League automatically.

But he'll make his first Burnley appearance at this level tomorrow and I think we can expect last Saturday's final friendly to have given us more than a clue as to how we might line up.

We have a few injury problems. Matt Lowton is out with a shin injury that might take some time to clear while Fredrik Ulvestad, a player who has really impressed in pre-season, is missing with the ankle injury he sustained last week.

Danny Lafferty was ruled out of Michael Duff's testimonial last week with a broken collar bone and he's likely to be out of action for around six weeks. We can add those to the three long term injury victims Ashley Barnes, Kevin Long and Dean Marney.

I wouldn't expect many, if any, changes to that side which means we could line up: Tom Heaton, Tendayi Darikwa, Michael Duff, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Scott Arfield, David Jones, Michael Kightly, Jelle Vossen, Lukas Jutkiewicz. Subs: Matt Gilks, Cameron Dummigan, Luke O'Neill, Stephen Ward, Matt Taylor, Sam Vokes, Marvin Sordell.

It's been all change at Leeds in the summer with the appointment of Uwe Rösler as manager, but when was it not all change there. This is a club that went through three managers last season with some very strange appointments along the way.

The news coming across the Roses border is that things are settling down there and they have signed a few new players, most notably Chris Wood from Leicester and Brentford's Stuart Dallas with Cardiff's Tom Adeyemi arriving on a season long loan.

They will certainly be looking to improve on their 15th place finish last season.

Dallas is the most recent signing and he'll be added to the squad that beat Everton last week in their last friendly although there will be one player not featuring. Steve Morison was a substitute last week, coming on for Wood, but he's since returned to Millwall.

They lined up for that game: Marco Silvestri, Gaetano Berardi, Souleman Bamba, Giuseppe Bellusci, Charlie Taylor, Tom Adeyemi, Lewis Cook, Alex Mowatt, Sam Byram, Souleymane Doukara, Chris Wood. Subs: Ross Turnbull, Lewie Coyle, Liam Cooper, Casper Sloth, Charlie Horton, Scott Wootton, Kalvin Phillips, Mirco Antenucci, Lee Erwin, Steve Morison.

 

Last Time We Were There

The 2013/14 season was hardly underway when we last went to Leeds. We'd played seven games and won 14 points and that meant we kicked off in fourth place, three points behind leaders QPR and two points behind Leicester and Blackpool.

Leeds were in mid-table but only three points behind us so a win would see them draw level.

Scott Arfield opened the scoring

We were right at the beginning of a winning run of seven league games. We'd beaten Birmingham 3-0 at home four days earlier and this was to be the second of those seven wins, another win that took us to second in the table, now above both Leicester and Blackpool on goal difference.

We won the game 2-1, a narrow one goal victory in the end, but this was an excellent performance and the points were fully deserved, something generously accepted by Leeds' boss Brian McDermott at the end of the game.

Just a week earlier, Scott Arfield apologised for the mistake that led to Blackburn's equaliser. He followed that up with his first Burnley league goal in the Birmingham win and at Elland Road he gave us the lead.

Danny Ings fed Kieran Trippier and the wide run from Michael Kightly enabled Tripps to get a low cross into the box. Sam Vokes tried to hit a shot but couldn't get a good contact but after a deflection it fell to Arfield who scored from a very narrow angle.

Right on half time we got a second. Again it was a ball in from the right, this time from Kightly. Vokes headed for goal and when Paddy Kenny parried it Sam was first to it to hit home.

We looked comfortable for most of the second half but it all changed when McDermott introduced Matt Smith. They started lumping long high balls into the box from all angles and eventually Smith pulled one back, heading home a free kick.

Our last concern was the addition of six extra minutes but we saw them out with no problems whatsoever, returning home in second place with a fully deserved victory.

The teams were;

Leeds: Paddy Kenny, Sam Byram (Paul Green 57), Jason Pearce, Scott Wootton, Aidy White, Rodolph Austin, El Hadji Diouf, Michael Tonge, Luke Murphy (Dominic Poleon), Luke Varney (Matt Smith 75), Ross McCormack. Subs not used: Alex Cairns, Michael Brown, Alex Mowatt, Noel Hunt.

Burnley: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Michael Kightly (Brian Stock 83), Dean Marney, David Jones (David Edgar 70), Scott Arfield, Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs not used: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, Junior Stanislas, Keith Treacy.

 

Previous Games against Leeds

 

Last 20 Years
Season Comp Ven Res Att  Scorers
2004/05 Championship a 2-1 27,490 Roche, Duffy
    h 0-1 17,789  
2005/06 Championship h 1-2 16,174 G O'Connor
    a 0-2 21,318  
2006/07 Championship h 2-1 15,061 Noel-Williams, Gray
    a 0-1 23,528  
2010/11 Championship h 2-3 20,453 Easton, Rodriguez
    a 0-1 31,186  
2011/12 Championship h 1-2 17,226 Rodriguez
    a 1-2 27,295 Austin
2012/13 Championship h 1-0 14,470 Austin
    a 0-1 16,788  
2013/14 Championship a 2-1 26,465 Arfield,Vokes
    h 2-1 18,109 Pearce(og), Arfield

 

 

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