It all starts again with Bolton

It's an early kick off too. Sky are turning up which means we get underway at 12:15 p.m. I've accepted that fixtures get moved all over the place now for television but I still think the opening day of the season, like the last day, should see all the teams kick off at the same time.

But 12:15 it is with the Football League including the game as one of their special games to mark the 125th anniversary of the league. There's going to be a bit of a fuss ahead of kick off with ten supposed legends of each club acting as a guard of honour.

David Jones is set for his debut

I've seen the names and was surprised to see no 12 goal legends had been selected by Bolton. Burnley's list, in alphabetical order, is Ian Britton, Paul Fletcher, Brian Flynn, Andy Lochhead, Colin McDonald, Jimmy McIlroy, Jimmy Robson, Derek Scott, Jim Thomson (that's the former player and not Jim Thompson of turnstile fame) and Colin Waldron.

The main event is the game and for Burnley the plans were hit on Thursday with the sale of Charlie Austin. I think most fans realised and accepted that selling Charlie was inevitable but the timing could not have been worse, just under 48 hours before the big kick off.

I'm certain that we are progressing on bringing in a new striker as soon as possible, with plans in place once Charlie went, but the short notice means there will be no late signing in the squad tomorrow.

Charlie might have followed a number of other players out of the door but the main goalscoring during the pre-season has come from Danny Ings.

I've found it quite strange to keep hearing from the club that Ings has lost his last two pre-seasons to injury. That's just not the case. Last year he got through pre-season before suffering a knee injury in the very last game at Rochdale.

The year before his pre-season was spent, injury free, at Bournemouth, and he was in the Bournemouth team that lost 3-0 at Charlton on the opening day of the 2011/12 season. Over a week later he signed for Burnley and it was two weeks after the start of that season that he suffered a knee injury in one of his early training sessions at Gawthorpe.

He's certainly looked sharp in this pre-season. He scored in all of the last four pre-season games, netting twice at Carlisle.

We can expect to see two new signings in the starting line up. With all last season's goalkeepers gone, a debutant is certain and that will be Tom Heaton, our first summer signing after he'd turned down a new contract offer at Bristol City.

He's the player with the Burnley pedigree, his dad having supported the Clarets after being brought up in the Burnley Wood area of town, just a stone's throw from Turf Moor.

Heaton started his career with Manchester United and the other debutant did likewise. That's midfielder David Jones whose move to Turf Moor was finally confirmed by the club yesterday.

With the signing announced, Jones said: "I feel like this is the place for me and I got that right from the start after speaking to the manager. I've been made to feel really welcome and I'm just eager to get the season underway now.

"I just felt at the time this was a very good option for me. I was a free agent and I was listening to various options that were coming available, but after meeting the gaffer I was happy to join and I have been very impressed.

"This seems like a very homely, family orientated club, so the first impressions were good and now I just want to get on playing for Burnley and have a good relationship with the fans."

I'm sure most fans have just about worked out what the team is likely to be. There has been no news from the club this week at all on either Michael Duff or Ben Mee. Duff has missed the last two games with a groin problem and Mee hasn't played since being forced off in the Cork game and that's two and a half weeks ago now.

I can only assume both will be out and that means there is just the forward position vacated by Austin to fill and that will almost certainly go to Sam Vokes.

The likely team is: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Kevin Long, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, Ross Wallace, Dean Marney, David Jones, Junior Stanislas, Sam Vokes, Danny Ings.

Incredibly the longest serving player in that line up is Kevin Long who has now been a Burnley player for three and a half years.

The substitutes will be selected from: Alex Cisak, Luke O'Neill, David Edgar, Joseph Mills, Scott Arfield, Brian Stock, Keith Treacy, Ryan Noble.

There have been a few changes at Bolton this summer with eight players coming in, most notably Marc Tierney, Alex Baptiste, Jermaine Beckford and Andre Moritz from Norwich, Blackpool, Leicester and Crystal Palace respectively.

Moritz is the latest of them. Having been released by Palace he has signed a one year deal this week after the loan departure of Marvin Sordell freed up enough money for Bolton to offer him a deal.

They were close to saying farewell to former Claret Tyrone Mears too this week. He appears to be surplus to requirements now and looked set to sign for Millwall but that deal did not go through with Mears turning it down.

Both Keith Andrews and Matt Mills looked ready to leave too, with Blackpool interested in signing both, but Dougie Freedman has, for now, put a block on that.

As for tomorrow's team, strikers Beckford and David Ngog are both in contention for a start. Beckford has been building up his fitness with Ngog returning from an injury.

Chung-Yong Lee isn't thought to be ready yet after he suffered an injury and Bolton will also be without long term injury victims Mark Davies, Stuart Holden and Joe Riley. Holden, the player who flew from America to sign for Burnley in January 2010, has suffered another serious knee injury in the last week that is likely to rule him out for much of the season.

Bolton's team will be similar to that which lost to Real Betis last week.

They are likely to select from: Adam Bogdan, Alex Baptiste, Zat Knight, David Wheater, Marc Tierney, Medo, Keith Andrews, Darren Pratley, Robert Hall, Chris Eagles, David Ngog,  Andy Lonergan, Tim Ream, Matt Mills, Craig Davies, Tyrone Mears, Tom Eaves, Jan Gregus, Jermaine Beckford.

Last Time They Were Here

Fifty weeks ago Bolton were at Turf Moor on the first day of the 2012/13 season. It was the second return for former manager Owen Coyle and, like the first one, he received a hostile reception from the Turf Moor crowd.

Two Burnley fans sat behind him wore t-shirts, one with JU in big letters and the other sporting DAS. A plane flew over with the trailing message 'Judas Coyle - you reap what you sow."

Martin Paterson scored the first goal of the season

It was to be another difficult afternoon for Coyle  as Burnley kicked off the season with two new signings in the team. Jason Shackell, the new captain, partnered David Edgar in the centre of defence with loan signing Joseph Mills at left back.

We went on to win the game 2-0 with a goal in each half. The first came after Kieran Trippier got in a right wing cross following a throw in. Junior Stanislas got on the end of it only for Tyrone Mears to block his shot.

It dropped for Dean Marney outside the box. His thunderous shot was also blocked and in something akin to pinball wizard it cannoned off Chris McCann for Charlie Austin to head across goal for Martin Paterson to head home.

Coyle was raging there was no offside flag. Steve Davis was so annoyed he dropped his note pad. Neither had seen Martin Petrov playing everyone onside.

Twelve minutes into the second half and it was all over. McCann made a great run down to the left before playing the ball out to Stanislas. When the cross came in McCann, who had continued his run, all but got on the end of it. Austin did though and bundled it home.

It was just the start we needed to the new season in front of a bumper crowd of over 18,000.

The teams were;

Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, David Edgar, Jason Shackell, Joseph Mills, Dean Marney, Ross Wallace, Chris McCann, Martin Paterson, Charlie Austin, Junior Stanislas (Ben Mee 80). Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Marvin Bartley, Alex MacDonald.

Bolton Wanderers: Adam Bogdan, Tyrone Mears, Zat Knight, Tim Ream, Sam Ricketts, Chung-Yong Lee, Mark Davies (Darren Pratley 75), Keith Andrews, Martin Petrov (Chris Eagles 59), Kevin Davies (Benik Afobe 59), Marvin Sordell. Subs not used: Andy Lonergan, Marcos Alonso, Matt Mills, Gregg Wylde.

Previous Games against Bolton

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