Liverpool kick off our Christmas programme

Last updated : 25 December 2014 By Tony Scholes

Liverpool are one of just two Premier League teams we are still to meet this season; Manchester City are the others, and we will have played them both by Sunday.

It's Liverpool first at Turf Moor and it's not the first time we've met them on Boxing Day. That was also the case in 1973, the last time we'd won automatic promotion to the top flight, and that day we beat Bill Shankly's team 2-1 at home.

Kevin Keegan failed to score from the penalty spot after Paul Fletcher had given us an early lead, but it was a game with a dramatic finish. Liverpool equalised six minutes from time but within a minute Ray Hankin had scored the winner.

George Boyd featured in a win against Liverpool in December lsat year

When the two sides met at Turf Moor in the following season, the game ended 1-1. It was Hankin again on the mark for Burnley and that's the last time we scored a league goal against them.

Last time we were in the Premier League they were the only team we failed to score against, losing both games 4-0, so maybe everything is with us.

We've lost our last two games away from home but we are currently on a run of four games without defeat at Turf Moor. Having beaten Hull we then drew against Both Aston Villa and Newcastle before beating Southampton a week last Saturday.

That win took us out of the bottom three for a week but we are back down to 18th going into this game tomorrow.

George Boyd has been a regular in the Burnley team since making his debut at Palace last September after signing on the last day of the transfer window. Looking forward to the game he said: "We've got a lot of confidence; we are on a good run of form and we're just enjoying every game and looking forward to the next one."

Boyd is one Burnley player who can claim a win against them too. "We played Liverpool for Hull last year around December time and we got a fantastic win there so it will be brilliant for our season if we can get the three points and kick on again," he added.

Boyd was a late substitute that day, coming on for Yannick Sagbo in a 3-1 win at the KC Stadium but he can expect to start tomorrow with manager Sean Dyche not likely to change much from last Saturday's defeat at Spurs.

Michael Duff will again be ruled out for a sixth consecutive game and the Clarets will also be without both Stephen Ward and Matt Taylor, but there has been increasing speculation this week that another injured player could be ready to come back into the team.

That, of course, is Sam Vokes. It seems forever since we saw Sam play. It was late March, almost nine months ago, that he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in the 2-0 home defeat against Leicester, but he's been playing in the development squad games and Dyche hinted last week that he might be considered for this game.

There's no pressure to rush him back, certainly not with the sort of form Ashley Barnes has been showing recently, but it might just be that he'll ease his way into the 18 at some stage over this hectic period. One thing is for certain, it will be good to see him back.

The team tomorrow could read: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Keane, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Dean Marney, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Steven Reid, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, Nathaniel Chalobah, Ross Wallace, Michael Kightly, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Marvin Sordell, Sam Vokes.

Liverpool, not too long ago, looked to be heading towards their first ever Premier League title. They were last champions of England in 1990 but last season looked set to take the title until a home defeat to Chelsea was followed by them losing a three goal lead at Crystal Palace with only 11 minutes remaining.

That meant a second place finish for a team that scored a staggering 101 goals. They were somewhat reliant on two players for those goals; Luis Suarez scoring 31 of them and Daniel Sturridge netting on 22 occasions. Steven Gerrard was the only other player to reach double figures and ten of his thirteen goals were from the penalty spot.

Suarez added goals and bite to the team and it was the biting that led to him leaving in the summer, and with Sturridge having played only three times because of injuries it has meant goals have been harder to come by this season.

Raheem Sterling and Gerrard are currently their leading goalscorers this season in the Premier League with three goals each whilst all of Adam Lallana, Jordan Henderson and Phillipe Coutinho have all netted twice.

That form means they currently sit tenth in the table on 22 points which is already 20 points behind leaders Chelsea although they are only nine points adrift of fourth place, the last qualifying position for Champions League qualification.

They go into tomorrow's game having drawn last time out at home to Arsenal. After Coutinho gave them the lead against a very poor Arsenal team, it took a goal deep into stoppage time from Martin Skrtel for them to rescue a point.

This week has seen a lot of positive noise coming out of Liverpool, about how they have now found the system that will take them forward. Manager Brendan Rodgers has said that striker Mario Balotelli doesn't fit into this system but has added him to the squad for tomorrow's game after he served a one match ban for breaking the FA's Twitter rules.

Four players we know who will definitely be missing for them are Dejan Lovren and Glen Johnson, both with groin injuries, Joe Allen with a knee injury and Fabio Borini who was sent off in the Arsenal game and will serve a one match ban.

Brad Jones will almost certainly continue in goal. He's played in the last two games after Simon Mignolet was taken out of the firing line.

For the Arsenal game, he lined up in the following team: Brad Jones, Martin Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho, Kolo Touré, Lucas Leiva, Jordan Henderson, Lazar Markovic, Steven Gerrard, Adam Lallana, Philippe Coutinho, Raheem Sterling. Subs: Simon Mignolet, Fabio Borini, Alberto Moreno, Javier Manquillo, Emre Can, Rickie Lambert, José Enrique.

 

Last Time They Were Here

It was the penultimate home game of our first Premier League season and ultimately the day we were relegated when Liverpool last visited Turf Moor in April 2010.

Having lost 4-0 at Anfield earlier in the season we fell to defeat by the same score although the two performances could hardly be compared and for more than half of this game we were the better side.

They reckon that all the luck goes against you when you are a team at the bottom and it was very much the case here. With David Nugent fit again he returned to the side which lined up as it had done two games previously in the 4-1 win at Hull.

Jack Cork was in outstanding form

It was a day when the support from the stands was terrific. We'd had a good number of games where there was precious little atmosphere but here the fans were right behind the team from the off.

Michael Duff was having a superb game at the back and in front of him Jack Cork was having his best ever game for Burnley whilst Wade Elliott was pulling the strings. Nugent, Steven Fletcher and Martin Paterson all played well but the goal just wouldn't come.

Fletcher headed over the bar as he was being pulled over by a Liverpool defender, an offence not seen by Phil Dowd, the referee who had been awarding penalties against us all season when no offences had taken place.

And probably our best chance came right on half time when Cork's header was just too close to Pepe Reina. It was 0-0 at half time and we went off to  standing ovation.

Dowd missed another good penalty shot at the start of the second half but then disaster struck when a Steven Gerrard shot from outside the box took a massive deflection which left Brian Jensen helpless.

It was hard to believe we were behind and seven minutes later it got worse when Gerrard got another, this time though a finish of real quality.

And then it just got worse. Maxi Rodriguez scored a third for Liverpool and in stoppage time, despite being yards offside, Ryan Babel was allowed to go through and score number four.

Relegation was confirmed with the most ridiculous scoreline of the season. I wrote then that we'd tasted the Premier League and I wanted it again. I wondered at the time whether I'd ever see it. Liverpool now come back to Turf Moor for another Premier League game tomorrow.

The teams were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Leon Cort, Michael Duff, Danny Fox, Wade Elliott, Graham Alexander (Robbie Blake 64), Jack Cork, Martin Paterson (Chris Eagles 71), Steven Fletcher, David Nugent (Steven Thompson 77). Subs not used: Nicky Weaver, Steven Caldwell, Andre Bikey, Jay Rodriguez.

Liverpool Pepe Reina, Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher, Daniel Ayala, Daniel Agger (Lucas 78), Steven Gerrard (Daniel Pacheco 82), Javier Mascherano, Maxi Rodriguez, Alberto Aquilani, Ryan Babel, Dirk Kuyt (Yossi Benayoun 48). Subs not used: Diego Cavalieri, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Philipp Degan, Nabil El Zhar.

 

Previous Games against Liverpool

 

Last 20 Years
Season Comp Ven Res Att  Scorers
1994/95 Coca-Cola Cup a 0-2 23,359  
    h 1-4 19,032 Robinson
  FA Cup h 0-0 20,551  
    a 0-1 32,109  
1996/97 FA Cup a 0-1 33,252  
2004/05 FA Cup h 1-0 19,033 Traore(og)
2009/10 Premier League a 0-4 43,817  
    h 0-4 21,553  

 

Click HERE to see all previous results against Liverpool