It's been a long time

Lee Hendrie

It’s the third time we have played our fellow Clarets in the League Cup. We were semi-final opponents in the competitions inaugural season of 1960/61 and ten years later we were two divisions above them when we were paired in a 2^nd round tie at Villa Park.

We lost on both occasions, but won the next three games against them. Two of them came in the promotion season of 1972/73 when we turned in superb performances to record victories of 4-1 at home and 3-0 at Villa.

That was followed by an FA Cup win in 1974 when Paul Fletcher scored the only goal in the 5^th round tie.

It was only two seasons after that when we met for the very last time, a First Division match on the Turf in Mark 1976. It was all even that day with a 2-2 scoreline in what was our last year at top level.

Brian Flynn scored both our goals whilst Ray Graydon and Andy Gray scored for Villa. The teams were as follows:

Burnley: Alan Stevenson, Derek Scott, Keith Newton, Billy Rodaway, Colin Waldron, Jim Thomson, Colin Morris, Ray Hankin, Paul Fletcher, Brian Flynn, Mike Summerbee. Sub not used: Tony Morley.

Aston Villa: John Burridge, John Gidman, John Robson, Charlie Aitken, John Overton, Leighton Phillips, Ray Graydon, Brian Little, Andy Gray, Bob McDonald, Frank Carrodus.

Earlier in the season we had drawn 1-1 at Villa Park with Peter Noble scoring both goals – Uwe was injured for the return match.

Almost 29 years, it’s a long time and it is just that bit longer for their manager David O’Leary. He made his Arsenal debut at the Turf in 1975 and has never been back as player or manager although he was here a couple of years ago as a television pundit.

After that last meeting we went in somewhat different directions. Villa went on to conquer Europe as we found ourselves heading just as far down the league as it is possible to go.

Things have looked up since David O’Leary took over from Graham Taylor, yes the Taylor who accepted his retirement gift at the Turf and then took another job.

They are currently ninth in the league table although much of this is down to the home form, they are currently unbeaten at home in the league but without a win away from Villa Park.

Their last away victory came at Middlesbrough in April when a last minute goal from the now departed Peter Crouch saw them win 2-1.

Crouch went back to the south coast in the summer, signing for Southampton for a fee of £2 million, ironically on the say that Middlesbrough were able to sing Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink on a free transfer. Still it is considerably less than Villa paid themselves for the tall striker.

Also on the way out in the summer were players such as Marcus Allback, Ronny Johnsen, Alpay and Dion Dublin which allowed O’Leary to bring in some new players.

The first of these was Danish defender Martin Laursen who cost Villa £3 million when he arrived from AC Milan. The only other permanent signing was Mathieu Berson, the French midfielder was signed from Nantes.

They have also added two loan players to their squad. Carlton Cole was brought in from Chelsea and Vaclav Drobny, a Czech Republic international defender came in from Strasbourg.

Saturday saw them beat Fulham 2-0 at Villa Park with goals from Nolberto Solano and Lee Hendrie although the win came at a cost. Darius Vassell was injured and it has since been determined that he suffered a broken ankle.

Click HERE to see all Villa’s results this season.

Gavin McCann

O’Leary takes this competition seriously and doesn’t experiment with his team and other than that will probably field a full strength side with Carlton Cole coming in for Vassell from the side that beat Fulham.

If that is the case Villa will line up:

Tomas Sorensen, Ulises de la Cruz, Olof Mellberg, Mark Delaney, Jlloyd Samuel, Nolberto Solano, Gavin McCann, Lee Hendrie, Pete Whittingham, Juan Pablo Angel, Carlton Cole. Subs from: Stefan Postma, Liam Ridgewell, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Steve Davis, Valcav Drobny, Luke Moore.

Who lines up for Burnley? Well, we know who won’t be playing – Frank Sinclair and Ian Moore.

Sinclair will serve his one match ban for having received five yellow cards whilst Moore will now be out for the foreseeable future having had his knee operated on yesterday.

It is almost certain that Sinclair’s place in the centre of defence by Michael Duff with Steve Cotterill having two choices at right back, either loan player Richard Duffy or Lee Roche.

I suspect he could go for Richard Duffy but that might not rule out Roche who could also come into the reckoning on the right hand side of the midfield. I suspect that will be the case, at the expense of Jean-Louis Valois whilst I expect Tony Grant to return in a five man midfield as the direct replacement for Mooro.

That would leave the Burnley side lining up:

Danny Coyne, Richard Duffy, Michael Duff, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Lee Roche, Richard Chaplow, Tony Grant, Micah Hyde, Graham Branch, Robbie Blake. Subs from: Brian Jensen, Amadou Sanokho, Jean-Louis Valois, Matt O’Neill, Joel Pilkington, Paul Scott.

There’s no recent match to look back at and certainly no results from the last twenty years either.

As we reported, the last time the sides met in a cup tie the Clarets went through in the FA Cup 1-0 with a Paul Fletcher goal.

Aston Villa’s side included former Claret Chris Nicholl, current Lancashire County Cricket Club Chief Exec Jim Cumbes, Arsene Wenger’s predecessor at Highbury Bruce Rioch and Ray Graydon who has managed Walsall and Bristol Rovers in the last few years.

The teams that day were,

Burnley: Alan Stevenson, Peter Noble, Keith Newton, Martin Dobson, Colin Waldron, Jim Thomson, Geoff Nulty, Ray Hankin, Paul Fletcher, Doug Collins (Billy Ingham), Leighton James.

Aston Villa: Jim Cumbes, John Gidman, Charlie Aitken, Bruce Rioch, Chris Nicholl, Ian Ross, Ray Graydon, Pat McMahon, Sam Morgan, Ian Hamilton, Alun Evans.

Burnley have had the upper hand over Villa at the Turf and a cup defeat in 1959 is the only defeat against them at home since World War II. So who knows, we could just keep that record going – could be another late night.

Click HERE to see all our results against Aston Villa right back to the very first season of the Football League when needless to say we won at home and lost away.