Looking to avenge opening day

Last Updated : 26-Nov-2005 by
Anthony Tonkin
It was hardly the best of starts to the season for the Clarets, although we were within just a few minutes of coming away with a point from a 1-1 draw before that late winner for the home side.

The win gave Crewe a good start to the season but it was hardly one they capitalised on, and they didn’t win again until mid-October when they picked up another home win against Luton. They have never been too far away from the bottom and despite two more wins recently they are just one point and one place above the bottom three.

They might well have beaten Luton at home but they didn’t come close to doing the double over them on Tuesday night when they went down to a 4-1 defeat in a performance that Dario G said was not good enough to keep them in League One never mind the Championship.

He said after the defeat, “It was strange because before the game we sensed that the players would be up for it and would give it a real go. A performance like that really does hurt me as a manager because it does not reflect the work we do with them on the training ground.”

It hasn’t left the Crewe manager without confidence and he believes that the game at the Turf is one his side is capable of winning. “Burnley are a good side,” he said. “They looked the same as us at the start of the season, but now they have found some consistency. We have some decent players, as they do, and as long as we don’t continue to make individual mistakes and work hard it will be an interesting game.”

There have been no additions to the Crewe squad since that meeting on the opening day of the season, with no players having joined, either permanently or on loan. Striker Juan Ugarte did go out on loan to Wrexham but that was cut short after three days because of an injury to the player.

With tough away games coming up, this is a game the Clarets need to win and win well against a Crewe side that last won at Burnley in 1996.

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

Team News

Crewe will be without Steve Foster, he is serving a one match suspension after he was sent off for a professional foul at Luton on Tuesday, and Dario G has suggested that Chris McCready will come in as his replacement.

He has suggested that there could be other changes at the back, with Darren Moss’ place under threat. If Moss is left out then the likely change would see Luke Varney come into the side with Billy Jones dropping back into the full back position.

The likely team is: Ben Williams, Billy Jones, Chris McCready, Richard Walker, Anthony Tonkin, Luke Varney, Kenny Lunt, Mark Rivers, Gary Roberts, Steve Jones, Michael Higdon. Subs: Stuart Tomlinson, Adie Moses, Eddie Johnson, David Vaughan, Darren Moss.

Click HERE to see the full Crewe squad.

It is just about impossible to make any second guesses as to what team Steve Cotterill will turn out. Prior to the game at Leeds it would have been easy to make a prediction based on the fact that we would almost certainly play a 4-5-1 formation.

The changes in midweek could never have been predicted and it remains now to see what formation Steve decides on. I would suspect he is likely to return to the tried and trusted with a back four, given that Crewe won’t play a team that includes the likes of Healy, Hulse and Blake against us. If that is the case it will probably mean a return for both Wade Elliott and Garreth O’Connor whilst the two likely to return to the bench would be Keith Lowe and Nathan Dyer, although that would be somewhat harsh on the both of them who played so well at Elland Road.

Then again we could try a different formation altogether. One way or another though we can expect to select from: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Keith Lowe, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, John Spicer, Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Nathan Dyer, Ade Akinbiyi, Lee Grant, Garreth O’Connor, Danny Karbassiyoon, Wade Elliott, Gifton Noel-Williams.

Last Time

The 3-0 home win against Crewe last season proved to be our biggest win of the season. It came directly after the first international break in September 2004 and was a much needed win following two defeats against West Ham and Gillingham at the end of August.

John McGreal got his first Burnley goal to give us the lead, Robbie Blake added a second and Richard Chaplow completed the scoring with a third in the second half. It was also the game that saw Jean-Louis Valois make his Burnley debut as a late substitute.

The teams were,

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Lee Roche (Jean-Louis Valois 85), Richard Chaplow (Matt O’Neill 90), Tony Grant, Graham Branch, Ian Moore, Robbie Blake (Joel Pilkington 90). Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Ryan Townsend.

Crewe: Ben Williams, Billy Jones (Richard Walker 83), Adie Moses, Stephen Foster, Anthony Tonkin, Neil Sorvel, Kenny Lunt, David Vaughan, Mark Rivers (Michael Higdon 67), Dean Ashton (Luke Varney 67), Steve Jones. Subs not used: Clayton Ince, Lee Bell.

Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1985/86

4

a

1-3

1,998

Taylor

..

h

0-1

1,988

.

1986/87

4

h

4-0

2,560

Murphy Hoskin James Malley

.

.

a

0-1

4,175

.

1987/88

4

h

0-0

5,408

.

..

a

1-0

3,720

Gage(og)

1988/89

4

h

1-0

5,677

Hardy

.

SV

h

1-1*

6,392

Macowat(og) - lost 4-2 on pens

.

4

a

0-4

3,597

.

1990/91

LD

h

2-1

3,481

White Francis

1991/92

4

h

1-1

9,657

Francis

..

a

0-1

5,530

.

1995/96

AW

a

1-0*

2,596

Nogan - won on Golden Goal

.

2

h

0-1

9,153

.

..

a

1-3

3,393

Winstanley

1996/97

2

h

2-0

9,459

Nogan Matthew

..

a

1-1

4,734

Barnes

2000/01

1

h

1-0

13,189

Cooke

..

a

2-4

6,994

Branch Cook(pen)

2001/02

1

h

3-3

13,964

Taylor Payton(2 1pen)

..

a

2-1

6,458

Taylor A Moore

2003/04

1

h

1-0

11,495

Chaplow

..

a

1-3

9,512

Blake(pen)

2004/05

1

h

3-0

11,274

McGreal Blake Chaplow

..

a

1-1

7,718

Grant

2005/06

C

h

1-2

8,006

Noel-Williams

Click HERE to see all our results against Crewe, starting with an FA Cup win in 1891.