It's cup night again

It's been something of a change with 2009 not bring one solitary home draw in either competition and four of the five ties in 2010 being away, the 1-0 win against Bolton Wanderers being the exception.

Steven Hewitt - in tonight's squad

That's changed this year. We beat Port Vale and Burton in the FA Cup before going out at West Ham in the fifth round, and Burton were back two weeks ago for the first round of this season's Carling Cup. A 6-3 extra time win that has set us up with this tie against Barnet.

I really enjoy runs in the cup competitions and this particular competition now has me thinking about the run of three seasons ago. If we look back to that amazing adventure, this tie tonight corresponds to the Oldham and I recall there wasn't much interest at that time, in fact probably not for a further two rounds when we went to Chelsea.

It's the same now and we can't expect too many to be inside Turf Moor. Barnet, who are supposedly not bringing many fans with them at all, ensured the prices remained too high and I can't somehow see the attendance being much higher than it was in the last round.

What we need to do is go out and get the game won, hopefully without the need for extra time, and get ourselves in the next round and hopefully see the interest rise.

Manager Eddie Howe is certainly looking for that and as such we can expect him to send out a strong side for this one. He said: "We may look at a couple of other players who haven't had much football but we want to pick a side that is going to do the job."

He said for the Burton game that he might make a couple of changes but in the end the only change was the one from the opening day draw against Watford that saw Charlie Austin replace the injured Martin Paterson.

Howe could be tempted to start with Zavon Hines, who made his Burnley debut on Saturday from the bench. We also know that youngster Steven Hewitt is going to be involved but with seven subs to be named I'd expect him to be on the bench.

Apart from the injured Paterson and Danny Ings, the only other player ruled out is Marvin Bartley who will be serving the second of a three match ban.

As for the starting eleven, it could be very similar to Saturday and we could line up: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Ben Mee, Brian Easton, Ross Wallace, Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Keith Treacy, Charlie Austin, Jay Rodriguez. Subs: Brian Jensen, David Edgar, Andre Amougou, Steven Hewitt, Wade Elliott, Alex MacDonald, Zavon Hines.

Our Opponents

Barnet arrive at Turf Moor having lost just once this season, that a home game against Port Vale. They have one win, against Morecambe on the opening day of the season, and two 2-2 draws to add to that and all four games have been against teams currently in the top six.

That's given the Bees 14th place and they'll be keen not to drop too far below that after last season's narrow escape. They went into the last game of the season in the bottom two and a win at home to Port Vale, coupled with Lincoln's home defeat to Aldershot, was enough for them to retain their Football League status.

They looked in a particularly difficult position when they appointed Martin Allen as manager but he turned things round before walking out after just a few weeks to join Notts County. Giuliano Grazioli steered them through to safety, assisted by Lawrie Sanchez and the two swapped roles after the escape.

Barnet will arrive at Burnley with two well known strikers who have crossed paths with the Clarets before. Izale McLeod will almost certainly start whilst Steven Kabba is expected to be on the bench after recovering from an injury that has kept him out since April.

McLeod has featured against Burnley for Charlton whilst Kabba has played against us for both Grimsby and Sheffield United. He scored Grimsby's first and third goals in that ridiculous 6-5 defeat at Blundell Park almost nine years ago.

Both have good goalscoring records for Barnet. McLeod has netted 17 in 33 league appearances whilst Kabba's record is 11 goals in 23 appearances.

Ricky Holmes is expected to feature having recovered from an injury in Saturday's game with Rotherham but they will be without Darren Dennehy and Daniel Leach. Both have been ruled out for the foreseeable future.

Barnet's team against Rotherham was: Dean Brill, Danny Sender, Clovis Kamdjo, Anwar Uddin, Jordan Parkes, Sam Deering, Mark Byrne, Mark Hughes, Mark Marshall, Jason Price, Izale McLeod. Subs: Liam O'Brien, Charlie Taylor, Ricky Holmes, Exodus Geohaghon, Tommy Fraser.

Last Time We Met In The Cup

The two clubs have only once previously met in a cup competition and that was in the first round of the FA Cup in the 1999/2000 season. The game was played at Underhill on a Sunday in front of the live Sky cameras.

It was a potential banana skin that didn't happen. We won the game 1-0 with a somewhat fortunate goal from Paul Cook with 16 minutes remaining yet, despite a lot of possession, Barnet never threatened to overturn the Clarets.

Paul Cook - scored the winner

The game was played in very difficult conditions with a strong wind blowing across the sloping pitch and Barnet probably started the game better than Burnley. But, one Paul Crichton save apart, they never really looked as though they might take a strangle hold on the game.

That's something Burnley should have done in the second half when the best chance of the game fell to John Mullin who managed to hit the bar from within the six yard box. Mullin was also unfortunate when he saw another effort go in only for it to be ruled offside.

The winner came after Glen Little played a left wing corner short to Cook. The midfielder played the ball towards the far post. No one got a touch, it deceived the goalkeeper and went into the far top corner.

It was almost 2-0 within a minute when substitute Ronnie Jepson, with his first touch, got onto an Andy Cooke cross only to see his effort come back off the woodwork.

In the end, a 1-0 win and a home tie against Rotherham in the next round.

The teams were;

Barnet: Lee Harrison, Mark Harber, Warren Hackett, Lee Gledhill (Ben Strevens 86), Greg Heald (Mike Basham 65), John Doolan, Frazer Toms, Stevie Searle, Danny Brown (Steve Barnes 75), Scott McGleish, Ken Charlery. Subs not used: Danny Naisbitt, Paul Wilson.

Burnley: Paul Crichton, Dean West, Steve Davis, Mitchell Thomas, Paul Smith (Gordon Armstrong 45), Glen Little (Ronnie Jepson 75), John Mullin, Micky Mellon, Paul Cook, Andy Cooke, Andy Payton (Alan Lee 75). Subs not used: Chris Brass, Paul Weller.

Referee: Rob Styles (Hampshire).

Attendance: 2,563.

Previous Games against Barnet