New look Clarets await Derby

They went out of the cup but it is their first defeat of the season under new manager Phil Brown who a year earlier came very close to becoming our manager, he was pipped at the post by Steve Cotterill.

Brown continued working as assistant to Sam Allardyce at Bolton but has now taken the opportunity at Pride Park, replacing George Burley who had steered the Rams to fourth place last season.

The new man took over in the last week in June, after Burley left following disagreements with Director of Football Murdo Mackay, and he’s been able to strengthen his squad with five new signings.

The first of the five was Andrew Davies who signed a long term loan deal from Middlesbrough. The young defender enjoyed a spell at QPR last season and Ian Holloway was keen to take him again but Brown got in first.

From youth to experience, his second signing was Marc Edworthy from Norwich who is closing in on his 400th first team game and he then added goalkeeper Kevin Poole who he had worked with at Bolton.

Poole is now 42 and has signed as cover but he played Premiership football as recently as January when he stood in for the suspended Jussi Jaaskelainen after he had been sent off at Middlesbrough.

Sheffield United’s Paul Thirlwell was next. He’d been with the Blades for a year having signed from Sunderland and played in around two thirds of their games last season. He was allowed to leave as Neil Warnock rung the changes again and Brown convinced him to move to Derby.

That was it for the season’s start but he’s since taken Seth Johnson back to Derby after his contract was terminated at Leeds. He’s got him for free which is not bad given that Brown’s former boss at Bolton, Colin Todd, sold him to Leeds for £7 million when he was in charge at Derby.

Brown’s new look team currently sit in third place with two wins and two draws and will be looking to continue their unbeaten start to the season. In a week when they have extended Inigo Idiakez’ contract the manager has said he thinks it will be a tough game and admitted he would settle for a point.

“It’s vitally important to keep the unbeaten run going,” he said. “Whether we beat Burnley at Turf Moor or get a draw there, I’ll take either of those.

However, we are not just going there to get a draw, we’ve got the quality to win the game but so have Burnley.”

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

Derby have minor doubts over defenders Andrew Davies and Michael Johnson. Both were ruled out of the Carling Cup tie, although the likelihood is that neither would have played, and Phil Brown has said that he will leave it to the 11th hour before making a decision on whether either or both can play.

Although it is expected they will both be passed fit, Brown has said that he has ample cover with both Jeff Kenna and Mo Konjic coming through Wednesday’s game and young defender Lewin Nyatanga having an impressive debut.

Should Derby, as expected, revert to the side that beat Cardiff last weekend they will line up: Lee Camp, Marc Edworthy, Andrew Davies, Michael Johnson, Richard Jackson, Morten Bisgaard, Paul Thirlwell, Adam Bolder, Inigo Idiakez, Tommy Smith, Grzegorz Rasiak. Subs from: Lee Grant, Marcus Tudgay, Pablo Mills, Jeff Kenna, Lewin Nyatanga, Seth Johnson, Paul Peschisolido.

Click HERE to see Derby’s full squad.

Steve Cotterill will this week be able to actually select a team rather than just send out his eleven fit players. Three new signings yesterday have given him some options. Jon Harley, the third of the three is almost certain to start and I would suspect at left back, whilst the other two could find themselves on the bench.

Much will depend on the injury problems, particularly at the back, where both Michael Duff and Wayne Thomas are expected to be passed fit after picking up knocks in the win against Carlisle in midweek.

Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Danny Karbassiyoon and Wade Elliott are still ruled out and it looks as though Kyle Lafferty will be added to the injury list, he is expected to be out for a couple of weeks with injury.

Of the youngsters who were involved on the bench on Tuesday we can expect to see goalkeeper Mark Crossley there again although Marc Pugh and Martin Reilly will rejoin the youth squad for the friendly at Nelson.

Other than that we have a somewhat bigger squad to choose from and we could go into the game with the following team:

Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Garreth O’Connor, Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Graham Branch, Gifton Noel-Williams, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs: Mark Crossley, Keith Lowe, John Spicer, Chris McCann, Karl Bermingham.

The corresponding home game last season was not one we would particularly wish to recall. It was played in October and was probably our worst performance of the season at that time, and played in front of the television cameras on a pitch that was very fortunate to be declared fit.

The game was only put on by referee Alan Kaye some forty-five minutes before kick off and with surface water just about everywhere and in front of the Bob Lord it looked suitable for Olympic swimming trials.

Referee Kaye did have enough after just over twenty minutes, he went off injured to be replaced by Lee Mason but the game continued to the end with Derby the better side by some distance on the night.

It took two horrendous defensive blunders for Derby to win it though, the first from Mo Camara and the second, one which stunned Turf Moor, from John McGreal. The central defender had turned in some faultless performances for the Clarets and no one could believe it when he turned and played the ball straight to Rasiak.

It left him with a simple tap in to add to the first goal scored six minutes earlier by Marcus Tudgay and there was no way back from there even though there was still half an hour to play.

The teams were,

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Jean-Louis Valois (Tony Grant 66), Richard Chaplow (Richard Duffy 77), Micah Hyde, Graham Branch, Ian Moore, Robbie Blake. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, Amadou Sanokho.

Derby: Lee Grant, Richard Jackson, Pablo Mills, Tom Huddlestone, Jamie Vincent, Adam Bolder, Inigo Idiakez, Ian Taylor, Marco Reich (Morten Bisgaard 80), Marcus Tudgay, Grzegorz Rasiak. Subs not used: Liam Richardson, Nathan Doyle, Paul Peschisolido (Mr. Karren Brady), Junior.