Home at last

It's good to be home and since that draw with Stoke we ended last season with a 1-0 win at Villa and then got the new season off to a decent start with a point at Leeds before going out of the Capital One Cup at Port Vale last Tuesday.

It's far too early to have any idea which teams are going to do well and which not quite so well in the division, but it is worth noting that in our eight post-war promotion seasons we've only once kicked off with a win, that coming 22 years ago today when we beat Port Vale at home in a season that led to Wembley and that victory against Stockport.

Having got through that game last week with a point, we can all look forward to getting back to familiar surroundings; that's both the players and us, the supporters, who will be making our way into our regular seats for the first time and catching up with people we haven't seen since last season ended.

Lukas Jutkiewicz is looking forward to being back at Turf Moor

Striker Lukas Jutkiewicz, who was handed a start at Elland Road, is no exception and said yesterday: "It was a tough start away at Elland Road in a good atmosphere. With the way the game went I think a point was possibly a fair result but now we're looking to take three on Saturday.

"We're looking forward to being back at home as the fans provided a great atmosphere last season and stuck with the boys. We're hoping they can do the same this season and we'll be trying to give them something to cheer about.

"You want three points and we're looking to lay down a marker. It's nice for the fans that it's on television as well so I hope we can put on a performance for them."

When a striker joins a new club he's always keen to get off the mark as quickly as possible with his first goal. For Jutkiewicz the wait is a long one. Having joined us last summer he is still waiting for his first competitive goal in Burnley colours and added: "I'd love to score a few goals this season for the fans and hopefully contribute in us getting promoted."

Despite Danny Ings moving on to Liverpool in the summer and Ashley Barnes being ruled out long term with a ruptured cruciate ligament injury, there is stiff competition for places up front. Juke and new signing Jelle Vossen got the nod last week, with Sam Vokes and Marvin Sordell replacing them with around twenty minutes remaining; Vokes going on to score the goal.

Chris Long has arrived from Everton to provide more competition and to add to that we've signed German striker Rouwen Hennings today for a reported €3 million fee.

Hennings will have to wait for his debut. I'm not so sure Sean Dyche would have thrown him in at the deep end so soon, but in any case we'll have to wait until international clearance has been received from the German FA.

We made four changes from the team that started at Leeds for the cup tie. Tom Heaton, David Jones and Jutkiewicz were all on the bench while Michael Keane was left out after a slight hamstring problem.

Keane is fit again but we are still without both new signing Matt Lowton and Fredrik Ulvestad, a player who looked very impressive in pre-season.

That suggests it will be a similar team, if not the same one, that played at Leeds.

The team a week ago was: 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, Tom Anderson, Stephen Ward, Matt Taylor, Marvin Sordell, Sam Vokes.

Our opponents Birmingham were having a difficult time last season. They sacked manager Lee Clark, promptly found themselves on the wrong end of an 8-0 scoreline at home to Bournemouth, and appointed Burton boss, and former Blue, Gary Rowett.

They were next to bottom of the league, with only relegation certainties Blackpool behind them, when Rowett arrived, but he turned things around and by the end of the season they were in tenth place having won 52 points in 32 games under the new boss.

He's brought in a handful of new players with Tomasz Kuszczak and Jacques Maghoma the best known, and they've started the season brightly with a 2-1 home win against Reading to start the season and victory by the same score at Bristol Rovers in the first round of the Capital One Cup.

They were virtually two different teams with only Jonathan Grounds, Michael Morrison and Stephen Gleeson starting both games.

Morrison remains the one doubt, but he's expected to play despite a tight hamstring and, like us, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Birmingham play the team that beat Reading on the opening day.

If they do, they would line up; Tomasz Kuszczak, Paul Caddis, Michael Morrison, Jonathan Spector, Jonathan Grounds, Stephen Gleeson, Maikel Kieftenbeld, David Cotterill, Jon Toral, Demarai Gray, Clayton Donaldson. Subs: Adam Legzdins, Wes Thomas, Jacques Maghoma, Lee Novak, David Davis, Paul Robinson, Andrew Shinnie.

Last Time They Were Here

Birmingham's last visit to Burnley came just three days after a late goal had earned Blackburn a point at Turf Moor, a result that had left us in fifth place in the Championship with 11 points from the first six games. Birmingham, meanwhile, were out of the bottom positions only on goal difference.

Against a Birmingham side that included former Claret Wade Elliott in their line up, we took an early lead and never ever looked as though we might relinquish it, going on to win 3-0 and moving up a place to fourth, now two points behind all of Leicester, QPR and Blackpool.

Two goals for Danny Ings

We hadn't beaten Birmingham at home at this level of football since the first ever post-war season and in front of only a four figure crowd I sensed a really flat atmosphere and a difficult game for us.

The first goal, on only three minutes, when our two strikers combined. Sam Vokes, some thirty yards from goal, spotted a run from Danny Ings. He played the perfect ball through and Ings did the rest by chipping goalkeeper Darren Randolph, a player who had come close to joining us that summer.

It was still 1-0 at half time but goodness knows how, so much were we on top, but we put that right in the first minute of the second half when Scott Arfield, whose mistake had led to that Blackburn goal, netted his first league goal for the Clarets.

Kieran Trippier, Vokes and Ings had all been involved before Michael Kightly, playing his second game after joining on loan from Stoke, crossed to the far post for Arfield to head back across Randolph.

Eight minutes later the scoring was over as Ings got his second and our third. He got onto the ball and went between two defenders before making no mistake.

The only downside was we had the lowest Turf Moor league attendance for almost ten years when Reading were the visitors in Stan Ternent's last season in charge. But there was no doubt that many more performances like this one should have the crowds coming back.

The teams were;

Burnley: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee (Danny Lafferty ht), Scott Arfield, Dean Marney, David Jones, Michael Kightly (Junior Stanislas 67), Danny Ings (Keith Treacy 77), Sam Vokes. Subs not used: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, David Edgar, Brian Stock.

Birmingham: Darren Randolph, Paul Caddis, Kyle Bartley, Dan Burn, Shane Ferguson (Mitch Hancox 49), Tom Adeyemi, Wade Elliott, Jonathan Spector, Chris Burke, Lee Novak (Matt Green 77), Darren Ambrose (Reece Brown 51). Subs not used: Colin Doyle, Callum Reilly, Andrew Shinnie, Peter Lovendkrands.

Previous Games against Birmingham

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