Old Trafford - this is one I'd really love to win

I was taking a look the other day to see which clubs, currently in the Premier League, I've never seen us beat away from home. The list, if the 1-0 Charity Shield win at Maine Road in 1973 is permissible, is just the one club, Manchester United.

In my early days of watching Burnley we beat them in successive seasons at Old Trafford. In 1961/62, goals from Gordon Harris, Jimmy Robson, Ray Pointer and John Connelly gave us a 4-1 win there and one season later we won 5-2 with Andy Lochhead and Jimmy McIlroy adding to a Connelly hat trick. We've not won there since.

My first visit was for the FA Cup tie in 1965. We'd lost there seven days earlier in the league but a Lochhead goal looked to be taking us through in the cup tie only for George Best to start running around with one of his boots in his hand to set up goals for Paddy Crerand and Denis Law in the last five minutes.

I've since seen us draw 2-2 after leading 2-0 with four minutes remaining (67/68), concede two late goals to draw 3-3 after leading 3-1 (69/70) and then concede a late goal (73/74) to draw 3-3 when we played without goalkeeper Alan Stevenson and Martin Dobson who were on England duty.

Even in the following season, when they were a division below us, it took an 87th minute goal from Willie Morgan to knock us out of the League Cup.

So, for now, I remain thankful to Jason Gilchrist and that hat trick in 2012 that was such a contribution to the only time I've seen us win there, a 4-3 victory in the FA Youth Cup.

Michael Keane has got his dad supporting us

In today's football this will always be a very difficult game for us. Back in the 1960s and 1970s there were times when we were better than them and could justifiably expected to get results at Old Trafford.

But we travel there tonight with them in fourth place in the table and us now next to bottom after both Hull and QPR won last night. We also go into the game without Dean Marney, as we will for every remaining game this season, after he suffered a cruciate ligament injury in the draw against West Brom.

So, a daunting task in front of us tonight, but one that I'm sure our players will be up to, and for some of them it is a return to an old home.

Tom Heaton and David Jones both started their careers with United, as did our most recent recruit Michael Keane who cost us around £2 million last month to make his Turf Moor move a permanent one.

Keane, like the rest of us, knows what the next set of fixtures is bringing us. "It's a huge challenge for us. I see pictures of our next eight fixtures going around, but I think it's something to get excited about.

"You see those fixtures and that's why you want to be in the Premier League. I think some of our best performances this season have actually come against the best teams. You look at Man City away and even Liverpool at home when we lost, but that was probably our best performance.

"We're going to those away fixtures against United and Chelsea with nothing to lose and we feel like we can go to these places and get results."

It's going to be a big night for him and he added: "I'm really looking forward to it. I was there for eleven years and all my family and a lot of my friends will be there tomorrow night. My dad has had a season ticket for forty years, so I grew up all my life being a United fan.

"It's going to be a great occasion for myself, but it's not going to affect the way I play at all. I think about the football first and I will be focused on the game. I'll be going there looking to put in a good performance and get a result with Burnley.

"Even my dad wants Burnley to win for a change, the first time he's ever wanted United to lose."

At this point in a match preview I usually would suggest that Keane is likely to line up in an unchanged team, but the Marney blow has now ensured that won't be the case.

I think the most likely scenario will be Scott Arfield moving into the centre, as he did for the second half on Sunday, with Michael Kightly or possibly Ross Wallace coming in.

We will probably line up: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Keane, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Scott Arfield, David Jones, Michael Kightly, Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Steven Reid, Luke O'Neill, Michael Duff, Danny Lafferty, Ross Wallace, Sam Vokes, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Marvin Sordell.

After many Fergie years, life has been different at Old Trafford since the end of the 2012/13 season. David Moyes survived less than a season, Ryan Giggs took over temporarily before handing over to Dutch national coach Louis van Gaal who certainly has his own methods in talking to the media.

He's spent a bit of brass since taking over and quietly, after a disappointing start, has pushed them up to the Champions League places. They slipped out last night with Arsenal's win against Leicester but a victory tonight will take them to at least fourth place.

They have confirmed that they will be without just two players tonight with Michael Carrick injured and Luke Shaw serving a one match ban following his red card at West Ham on Sunday.

The manager said: "I have to see how the players have recovered from the match against West Ham. That was a tough game, we had to fight until the end so I have to look and see how they have recovered."

Their team at West Ham was: David de Gea, Antonio Valencia, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo, Luke Shaw, Daley Blind, Wayne Rooney, Adnan Januzaj, Angel Di Maria, Radamel Falcao, Robin van Persie. Subs: Victor Valdes, Juan Mata, Ander Herrera, Paddy McNair, James Wilson, Chris Smalling, Marouane Fellaini.

Last Time We Were There

January 2010 brought our last visit to Old Trafford. It was a day of firsts. Brian Laws was in charge of the team for the first time, and received a superb reception from the Burnley fans. With Steven Caldwell and Clarke Carlisle out injured and Andre Bikey at the Africa Cup of Nations, Owen Coyle would have moved Stephen Jordan into the middle, but Laws sprung a surprise by giving David Edgar a league debut for the Clarets.

League debut for David Edgar

We'd suffered a hammer blow with the Coyle defection and this was the first opportunity for the Burnley fans to rally round, and rally round they did. There was a real sense of togetherness in the corner that day and Laws wasn't the only one to get some support.

With United fans protesting against the Glazer family, the Burnley fans, as one, chanted the name of our chairman. "There's only one Barry Kilby," was the cry in support of the chairman. I bet he dreamed of having his name chanted at Old Trafford when he was playing in our youth team back in the 1960s.

Generally, we played well and might have got in front at some stage. All of Steven Fletcher, David Nugent and Chris Eagles missed good chances but there was a blow for the Clarets just past the half hour when Fletcher was forced off with an injury.

Antonio Valencia had caught him with a shocker of a challenge that should have seen him getting a red card. We got the free kick with referee Lee Probert taking no further action.

We held out for over an hour. No, that's not fair, we were not holding out and we looked every bit as likely to score as they did.

But then came the goals. Dimitar Berbatov scored on 64 minutes and five minutes later it was 2-0 through Wayne Rooney. The scoreline finally flattered United when Mame Biram Diouf scored right at the end to give them a 3-0 win.

The fans and the players were fully behind the manager that day. What happened afterwards provided a major contribution to us being relegated. A few more performances as good as this one and we would have had a very good chance of staying up.

The teams were;

Manchester United: Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville, Wes Brown, Jonny Evans, Patrice Evra, Antonio Valencia, Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick (Anderson 65), Nani, Dimitar Berbatov (Michael Owen 73), Wayne Rooney (Mame Biram Diouf 73). Subs not used: Tomasz Kuszczak, Rafael, Fabio, Ji-Sung Park.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, David Nugent, Wade Elliott, Kevin McDonald (Joey Gudjonsson 73), Chris Eagles (Robbie Blake 83), Steven Fletcher (Steven Thompson 36). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Richard Eckersley, Christian Kalvenes, Fernando Guerrero.

Previous Games against Manchester United

Click HERE to see all previous results against Manchester United