After two home games, against Chelsea and West Ham, it is back on the road and a third successive game against London opposition when we travel to Craven Cottage to play Fulham.
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If this game was at home you would be confident of a result against a Fulham side who just don't win at Burnley. But things are somewhat different at Craven Cottage.
The last time we got anything there was in a 1-1 draw during the 1981/82 season when we were both promoted from the then third division. Kevin Young got our goal that day but a year earlier we won 2-1 with current manager Brian Laws scoring the first goal.
One point out of 36 tells its own story away from home. We have seven games to try and put that right and get a few more. Tonight, added to the win on Saturday, would be just about the right time to do that.
Our Opponents
Fulham are currently in a disappointing run of form, but we shouldn't be fooled by that. They are a very good, and extremely well organised, side under Roy Hodgson who has done a fantastic job there in two years since taking over from the disaster area known as Lawrie Sanchez.
Hodgson kept Fulham up, against all the odds, in 2008 and last year led them to a seventh place finish and a place in the Europa League. This season, despite the recent run, they are still in the top half and are confident they can get further up the table.
Whilst Brian Laws was busy during the January window, Hodgson was able to bring in three new players, two of them on loan.
The permanent signing is Chris Buchtmann, a Dutch midfielder from Liverpool, whilst he strengthened his squad further with two loan signings in Nicky Shorey (Aston Villa) and Stefano Okaka from Roma.
Click HERE to see all Fulham's results this season
Team News
One of their key players, Bobby Zamora, was missing on Saturday when they drew at Bolton, but he's back tonight after shaking off illness. And there is further good news for the Cottagers who also have Simon Davies available.
Hodgson said: "Zamora is fine and has recovered from his sickness. He's back in contention, as is Simon Davies, which is good. That's at least two of the injured players back tomorrow.
"To be fair I've not really counted Bobby when I've talked about the injured players because it was a sickness which kept him out of one game. He doesn't belong in the group of six or seven that we'll have to do without for a long period."
Amongst those injured players are Paul Konchesky, Clint Dempsey, John Pantsil and Kagisho Dikgacoi.
Fulham's team at Bolton was: Mark Schwarzer, Chris Baird, Aaron Hughes, Brede Hangeland, Nicky Shorey, Damien Duff, Danny Murphy, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Jonathan Greening, Erik Nevland, David Elm. Subs: Pascal Zuberbühler, Kelly, Bjorn Helge Riise, Fredrik Stoor, Chris Smalling, Stefano Okaka, Dickson Etuhu.
Click HERE to see the full Fulham squad
Steven Caldwell, Graham Alexander and Chris McCann remain out of the reckoning for Brian Laws, but Stephen Jordan is close to fitness and there were no further injuries reported from the game on Saturday.
It is difficult to determine whether Laws will stick with the team that won on Saturday or whether he will freshen it up with a couple of changes.
The team on Saturday was: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Leon Cort, Danny Fox, Wade Elliott, Kevin McDonald, Andre Bikey, Robbie Blake, David Nugent, Steven Fletcher. Subs: Nicky Weaver, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Jack Cork, Chris Eagles, Martin Paterson, Steven Thompson.
Last Time
Our last trip to Craven Cottage was back in September 2000 during a fuel crisis. It was our second trip to London in four days having won 1-0 at Crystal Palace on the Saturday with a Graham Branch goal.
We'd made a good start to the season after winning promotion and were sat in eighth place with eight points from five games. Our opponents Fulham were already points clear at the top with five wins out of five.
It was always going to be a difficult game and it was made a lot harder by the appalling performance of referee Trevor Parkes, with some Burnley fans suggesting he must have picked up a Harrods hamper on the way.
Paul Cook gave us an early lead with a deflected free kick, but it was an incident early in the second half that turned the game. Andy Cooke was clean through and brought down by Fulham defender Chris Coleman. Coleman turned to go, knowing he was to be sent off, but incredibly Parkes was waving play on. He'd given nothing.
Two minutes later and Bjarne Goldbaek had equalised for Fulham and they went on to win 3-1 with Louis Saha netting twice. To make matters worse, idiot Parkes sent off Lee Briscoe to leave us with ten men.
The teams that night were;
Fulham: Maik Taylor, Steve Finnan, Andy Melville, Chris Coleman, Rufus Brevitt, Bjarne Goldbaek, Lee Clark, Sean Davis (John Collins 75), Fabrice Fernandes, Barry Hayles (Luis Boa Morte 74), Louis Saha (Eddie Lewis 86). Subs not used: Marcus Hahnemann, Zat Knight.
Burnley: Paul Crichton, Paul Weller, Ian Cox, Gordon Armstrong (Andy Payton 67), Mitchell Thomas, Lee Briscoe, Glen Little, John Mullin (Micky Mellon 74), Kevin Ball, Paul Cook (Graham Branch 61), Andy Cooke. Subs not used: Robbie Jepson, Brad Maylett.
We've to go back to the 1967/68 season for our last top flight game at Craven Cottage. On that occasion we had a goal feast with Fulham coming out on top in a 4-3 scoreline.
We were 1-0 down but then 2-1 up with just 17 minutes remaining, our goals coming from Andy Lochhead and Frank Casper. Then Fulham scored three times to lead 4-2 before a John Dempsey own goal pulled one back for us in the last minute.
Our team was: Rodney Jones, John Angus, Ray Ternent, Sammy Todd, Colin Waldron, Colin Blant, Willie Morgan, Andy Lochhead, Frank Casper, Martin Dobson, Ralph Coates.
Previous games against Fulham
Previous 20 Seasons | Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers | 1992/93 | 2 | h | 5-2 | 9,881 | Harper Farrell Penny Heath Conroy | | . | . | a | 0-4 | 5,531 | . | 1993/94 | 2 | h | 3-1 | 9,021 | Randall Eyres Deary | | . | . | a | 2-3 | 4,943 | Eyres Randall | 1997/98 | 2 | a | 0-1 | 5,096 | . | | . | . | h | 2-1 | 9,745 | Cooke Payton | 1998/99 | 2 | a | 0-4 | 9,983 | . | | . | . | h | 1-0 | 13,086 | Jepson | 2000/01 | 1 | a | 1-3 | 11,863 | Cook | | .99 | . | h | 2-1 | 15,737 | I Moore Little | 2002/03 | FA | a | 1-1 | 13,062 | A Moore | | . | . | h | 3-0 | 11,635 | Taylor I Moore Diallo | 2008/09 | LC | h | 1-0 | 7,119 | Rodriguez | 2009/10 | PL | h | 1-1 | 18,397 | Elliott |
Click HERE to see all our results against Fulham |
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