It's Cup night at the Turf again

Many will see this game as an interference; that we should be concentrating on the league, but it's one I'm looking forward to and I've always thought cup runs can often give the league form a bit of a boost too.

We've reached this round having beaten York at Bootham Crescent, then both Preston and Nottingham Forest at home. Those last two have come in this sensational run of unbeaten games since our one defeat on the road at Brighton.

Kieran Trippier is hoping for another victory

We didn't make it to this round last season; we went out in round three at Swindon, but the last time we played at this stage was at Cardiff two years ago when we turned in a shocker of a performance and lost 1-0 against a team that included our current goalkeeper Tom Heaton.

It's nine years since Turf Moor staged a fourth round tie. On that occasion it was Spurs who won 3-0 to avenge a defeat against us two years earlier in the same competition.

No matter what the team is tonight, and we do have injury concerns, I expect our bench to be somewhat stronger than it was that night with Paul Scott, Joel Pilkington, Matt O'Neill, Mark Yates and Jean-Louis Valois our five substitutes on a night when Amadou Sanokho got his only start in Burnley colours and a certain Gary Cahill made his debut.

One player expected to be fit, despite picking up a late knock in the QPR game, is right back Kieran Trippier. Ahead of tonight's game he said: "It's another difficult game against West Ham who are doing well in the Premier League, but they are coming to our patch so let's hope we can another victory and get in the next round."

The doubts surround Scott Arfield who missed Saturday's game with a groin strain picked up in training the day before and Dean Marney who was forced off towards the end of Saturday's win.

Sean Dyche has suggested that he'll wait as long as possible before making a decision but it is looking most likely that both will miss out. It's a blow given that David Jones will also be on the sidelines tonight as he sits out a one match ban having collected his fifth yellow card of the season in that QPR win.

I'd expect both David Edgar and Brian Stock to come in to those central midfield roles but whether Dyche opts to make any further changes remains to be seen.

If not, we could line up: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Keith Treacy, David Edgar, Brian Stock, Michael Kightly, Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs from: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, Junior Stanislas, Ryan Noble, Alex Coleman, Luke Conlan, Steven Hewitt, Jason Gilchrist.

West Ham, like us, have played the last two rounds at home. They entered the competition for the second round. They won 2-1 against Cheltenham and then secured a 3-2 win against Cardiff with the goals coming from Ravel Morrison, Matt Jarvis and Ricardo Vaz Te.

They drew 0-0 at Swansea on Sunday to go 15th in the Premier League, but the only relevance we can take from that game is tonight they will field a team much changed, if not completely changed, from the one that played at the Liberty Stadium.

That means players such as Carlton Cole, Joe Cole and Matt Taylor can expect to start alongside Matt Jarvis, a former Wolves team mate of four of the current Burnley squad. They are also likely to include Jack Collison who has returned from a loan at Bournemouth.

West Ham have reported that as well as those senior professionals named above, some of the club's academy prospects are likely to figure because of the demands of two fixtures in such quick succession.

Last Time They Were Here

This will be the second time we've played them in the League Cup. Last time, in 1980/81, we were beaten 6-0 on aggregate and that can be added to four FA Cup exits against them leaving us still looking for our first ever cup victory against them.

That big League Cup defeat, in the second round after we'd beaten Wrexham in a pre-season first round tie. We lost the home leg 2-0 and then suffered a 4-0 defeat at West Ham in the second leg.

Our team at Turf Moor was: Alan Stevenson, Ian Wood, Brian Laws, Derek Scott, Jim Thomson, Billy Rodaway, Tommy Cassidy (Kevin Young), Martin Dobson, Billy Hamilton, Steve Taylor, Phil Cavener.

For the second leg, David Holt came in at left back for Wood with Laws switching back to right back. By then both central defenders, Thomson and Rodaway had been dropped. Dobson moved into defence with Cavener starting in a reshuffled midfield, and Vince Overson partnered Dobson.

Previous Games against West Ham

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