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It's been a hard four weeks with many an hour spent on the motorway network on our way to three of those four games and it is really good to be back home again and looking forward to Turf Moor once more opening its gates.
Removing the cup tie at West Ham; playing three consecutive away league games is not unprecedented but I'm not sure at the stat that shows six out of the last seven were on the road. I'm still to be convinced that placing the re-arranged games against Portsmouth and Cardiff in the middle of all this was the best of ideas but we've more than got away with it with no less than eleven points from those games.
For much of the early part of the season I always felt we were under pressure to win home games because we'd failed to win away from home. Many of them were draws, when they should surely have been wins. The away game against our opponents today, Crystal Palace, definitely falls into that category as do the games at Sheffield United and Norwich. I also felt that we should have won at Ipswich and even QPR. But they were draws, and they were decent results as long as we were winning at Turf Moor.
The pressure to win today is, however, somewhat different in that we are now looking for the three points to substantiate the away results. No matter which way you look at it they have been exceptional and we need to get the most out of those points by adding to them at Turf Moor.
We're eighth in the table; we are playing catch up. With eight of the remaining games at home we really do have a chance of getting into that top six but only if we can make these home games count - and that starts today.
Crystal Palace, like ourselves, opted for a change of manager recently. The axe fell on George Burley on New Year's Day after a defeat to Millwall. I have to say I'm pleased he's no longer their manager. As someone who often writes the word 'BURNLEY' I did find it very difficult not placing a letter N in the word 'BURLEY' and when he was appointed in the summer the headline on Clarets Mad initially read 'Burnley confirmed at Palace'.
They were linked with a number of managers to replace him in January and none more so than Bournemouth's Eddie Howe. For a while it looked as though he had a straight choice between Palace and their local rivals Charlton but he turned them both down before heading to North East Lancashire and Turf Moor. I'm sure the very small gathering of Palace fans will voice their opinion this afternoon.
Instead, they turned to a former playing hero in Dougie Freedman who was promoted from within. He's more than a 12 goal legend at Selhurst Park and his appointment was met with considerable enthusiasm.
He was appointed on 11th January, just a few days before Howe was confirmed at Turf Moor. It's been a bit of a mixed bag for him but they were in the bottom three when he took over. In eleven games under Freedman they have won twice but they were crucial wins against Middlesbrough and Sheffield United.
They go into today's game after finding their scoring touch last week in the 3-3 draw against Reading. Their scorers were Darren Ambrose, Neil Danns and Jermaine Easter for whom it was a first goal in Palace colours.
Ambrose and Danns both have six league goals this season but the one to watch could be James Vaughan who has seven, including a hat trick on his home debut against Portsmouth in September. He is now in his second loan with them from Everton this season.
Dougie Freedman has been given a major boost ahead of the game with two players having been passed fit. One is goalkeeper Julian Speroni who picked up a groin strain in last week's game with Reading. Rated one of the best keepers in the Championship, Freedman will be delighted to have him available.
They also have Alex Marrow fit again. The former Blackburn Rovers midfielder was on loan at Palace in the first half of the season but made the move a permanent one in January. He hasn't played for four weeks because of an ankle injury but is now fit again and will be in today's squad.
Palace lined up last week against Reading as follows: Julian Speroni, David Wright, Anthony Gardner, Patrick McCarthy, Dean Moxey, Nathaniel Clyne, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Darren Ambrose, Neil Danns, James Vaughan, Steffen Iversen. Subs: Lewis Price, Claude Davis, Wilfred Zaha, Owen Garvan, Sean Scannell, Pablo Counago, Jermaine Easter.
It's all been about strikers this week for Burnley manager Eddie Howe. He's already without Martin Paterson, and has been since the beginning of last month, who has suffered a recurrence of his thigh problem.
Steven Thompson has been very much part of the squad recently but he's undergone the operation this week that we were told about to clear up an infection in his groin and it will be a minimum four to six weeks before he's available again.
And, just to make it worse, Howe confirmed that Charlie Austin arrived with an ankle injury when we signed him from Swindon and young striker Wes Fletcher, who might have been hoping for a call up to the squad, also has an ankle problem.
That leaves just Jay Rodriguez and Chris Iwelumo as fit strikers which has meant Howe, so far without success, looking to bring someone in on loan.
Again, I expect all his nine ever presents to start which means there will be just two places up for grabs and being contested by Ross Wallace, Wade Elliott and Chris Iwelumo. Against Palace I expect Iwelumo to play and that could mean Wallace being the one to miss out this week.
If that's the case our team could be: Lee Grant, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Michael Duff, Danny Fox, Jack Cork, Dean Marney, Wade Elliott, Chris Eagles, Jay Rodriguez, Chris Iwelumo. Subs: Brian Jensen, David Edgar, Andre Bikey, Brian Easton, Graham Alexander, Marvin Bartley, Ross Wallace.
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The previous home game had ended in a shock 4-2 defeat at the hands of Sheffield Wednesday. Following that we'd been virtually blown away in the Gene Kelly at Blackpool as Christian Kalvenes won us the points before losing easily in the FA Cup at Arsenal.
Angry with the performance at Arsenal, Coyle left out Joey Gudjonsson, Kevin McDonald and Chris Eagles. Rhys Williams came back in and there were recalls for Wade Elliott and Steven Thompson.
We were down to ninth in the table and needed to take advantage of this game in hand but it hardly started well.
With 26 minutes on the clock a big punt upfield from Julian Speroni caught out his counterpart Brian Jensen. He came, stopped, came, stopped again before being caught in no man's land and allowing Shefki Kuqi to score.
It seemed to affect him badly and he had some shaky moments as Palace looked for a second although when it came ten minutes before half time there was nothing he could do. A Palace corner was half cleared and when Paul Ifill hit it back into the box it diverted off Clarke Carlisle for an own goal.
2-0 down, were our play off hopes in tatters? What we couldn't have known is that we would not concede another goal at Turf Moor for six months with Sunderland's Darren Bent the next player to beat Jensen.
Thankfully, six minutes before half time we pulled one back. Ours was from a corner too. It dropped to Elliott whose shot came back off the bar for Carlisle to head home from close range. So 2-1 down at half time and now something to play for.
We dominated the second half but the equaliser just wouldn't come. We were denied a clear penalty by the appalling Carl Boyeson but then, with just seven minutes remaining, his assistant on the Bob Lord side came to our rescue.
He saw a foul in the box and the flag went up before firmly being placed across his chest. Penalty - and Graham Alexander scored from the spot. 2-2 with seven minutes left. We looked as if we'd got a point.
With two minutes to Eagles, on as a substitute, got down the left and crossed for Thompson who took the ball with his back to goal. He controlled the ball superbly before turning his defender and unleashing a spectacular shot to give us the lead.
We hadn't finished either. Into stoppage time and Jay Rodriguez scored his first ever league goal. Thompson played him in and all he had to do was play the ball across to the unmarked Eagles. But no, he opted to shoot and slid the ball past Speroni to give us a 4-2 win.
We were back in the top six and never really looked back after this result. The last seven minutes had seen what looked like a defeat become a convincing win.
The teams were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Rhys Williams, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Christian Kalvenes, Wade Elliott, Graham Alexander, Chris McCann (Joey Gudjonsson 72), Robbie Blake (Chris Eagles 69), Steven Thompson, Martin Paterson (Jay Rodriguez 61). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Kevin McDonald.
Crystal Palace: Julian Speroni, Nathaniel Clyne, Claude Davis, Clint Hill, Jose Fonte, John Oster (Nick Carle 53), Neil Danns, Shaun Derry, Paul Ifill, Anthony Stokes (Alan Lee 68), Shefki Kuqi (Victor Moses 90). Subs not used: Johannes Ertl, Rui Fonte.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
2000/01 | 1 | a | 1-0 | 18,531 | Branch |
WC | h | 2-2 | 5,889 | Cooke Payton(pen) | |
WC | a | 1-1 | 5,720 | Cooke - lost on away goals | |
1 | h | 1-2 | 14,973 | Cook | |
2001/02 | 1 | h | 1-0 | 14,713 | Cook |
a | 2-1 | 18,457 | Ian Moore(2) | ||
2002/03 | 1 | h | 0-0 | 12,407 | |
a | 1-1 | 16,344 | Taylor | ||
2003/04 | 1 | h | 2-3 | 12,976 | Blake Roche |
a | 0-0 | 15,276 | |||
2005/06 | C | a | 0-2 | 20,127 | |
h | 0-0 | 11,449 | |||
2006/07 | C | a | 2-2 | 16,396 | Mahon Lafferty |
h | 1-1 | 10,659 | Akinbiyi | ||
2007/08 | C | h | 1-1 | 10,711 | Blake |
a | 0-5 | 23,950 | |||
2008/09 | C | a | 0-0 | 14,071 | |
h | 4-2 | 10,312 | Carlisle Alexander(pen) Thompson Rodriguez | ||
2010/11 | C | a | 0-0 | 14,451 | |