Owls and Clarets clash for first time in League Cup

Last updated : 26 August 2014 By Tony Scholes

Our first involvement in the new knock out competition came in October 1960 when three Gordon Harris goals and one from John Connelly saw us through to a 4-0 victory as we made our way to the semi-finals and a replay defeat to Aston Villa.

Sheffield Wednesday, meanwhile, didn't take part in the inaugural season. It was September 1966 before they first entered, and they were beaten at home by neighbours Rotherham. Their first victory in the competition came a year later and a 5-3 success at Stockport.

Over the years we've avoided each other in this competition and tonight will be the first ever League Cup clash between the two clubs and the first cup tie in any competition since we took a Hillsborough hammering in a 6th round FA Cup replay in 1983.

Matt Gilks is expected to play in goal

There's been talk of changes to the Burnley team from the one beaten 1-0 at Swansea. I'm expecting them but it is unlikely  that we'll make quite as many changes as we did for our tie at the same stage when we were last in the Premier League.

We'd beaten Everton 1-0 two days earlier with a Wade Elliot goal but Owen Coyle made ten changes to the team for our trip to Hartlepool with Andre Bikey the only player to start both although the bench was made up of seven of the team that had faced Everton.

We just about scraped through that one with Steven Fletcher, on as a substitute, scoring a late equaliser and then winning it for us with a second in extra time.

Sean Dyche has all but said there will be changes tonight and I expect all of Matt Gilks, Steven Reid and Stephen Ward to make competitive debuts for the club, but much will depend on how far he wants to go with the changes.

The goalkeeper, full backs, wide players and strikers can easily be changed but there are a lack of options in the centre of defence and certainly in the centre of midfield where, right now, the only option to Dean Marney and David Jones appears to be Steven Hewitt.

I'm sure if I have a guess at the team I'll be a mile away but here goes: Matt Gilks, Steven Reid, Kevin Long, Jason Shackell, Stephen Ward, Ross Wallace, Steven Hewitt, David Jones, Michael Kightly, Ashley Barnes, Marvin Sordell.

Our opponents tonight, Sheffield Wednesday, have made a good start to the season with eight points from their four games. We need to beware too. They've drawn both home games against Derby and Millwall but recorded victories in both of their away games at Brighton and Middlesbrough.

They've also reached tonight's game with a 3-0 win over Notts County in the first round of the competition, and given that they were the first team to miss the cut and go into the draw unseeded it means they are the toughest opponents we could have faced.

That's in sharp contrast to a year ago when they didn't win any of their first 12 games, that first victory coming at home to Reading on 2nd November. That was followed by three more defeats which led to the change of manager.

It's all changed since and Atdhe Nuhiu, who scored twice in a 3-2 win at Middlesbrough, has said they will be coming to Burnley full of confidence and he sees no reason why they can't progress into the next round.

They certainly have recent history on their side in a fixture that has rarely gone in favour of the home side. Our last Turf Moor victory against them came in October 2000 when Steve Davis gave us a 1-0 win. In the period since we've only lost once at Hillsborough, that on the opening day of the 2008/09 season.

Wednesday are not expected to tinker with their team much, if at all, and it would be no surprise to see them line up as they did at Middlesbrough three days ago.

Their team then was: Keiren Westwood, Liam Palmer, Glenn Loovens, Tom Lees, Joe Mattock, Jacques Maghoma, Jose Semedo, Giles Coke, Chris Maguire, Atdhe Nuhiu, Stevie May. Subs: Chris Kirkland, Kamil Zayatte, Rafael Floro, Gary Madine, Jeremy Helan, Rhys McCabe, Paul Corry.

 

Last Time They Were Here

Sheffield Wednesday were last at Turf Moor in January this year. It came after a 2-1 win at Yeovil and we were clear favourites having won our previous three home games.

It was one of those games where we deserved more than the one point we won, but some disappointing finishing, some downright bad luck and outstanding goalkeeping from Chris Kirkland allowed the Owls to go home with a point of their own from a 1-1 draw.

Sam Vokes gave us the lead

The two goals came right at the end of the first half. We'd played well but hadn't been able to get a goal but that changed when Dean Marney chipped the ball into the box for Sam Vokes who slid the ball home.

A half time lead was perfect but it wasn't to be. Wednesday won a free kick on the left which they hit to the far post. When it was headed back across goal we allowed the ball to bounce and Chris Maguire, who'd escaped the attentions of Kieran Trippier, found the net from close range.

In the second half we did everything but score. Kirkland stopped everything but I thought we'd finally beaten him right at the end.

Ashley Barnes, on for Keith Treacy for his home debut, did really well to stop the ball going out for a throw and then even better to prevent it crossing the line for a goal kick. He produced a superb cross for Danny Ings who could do no more than look on in disbelief as Kirkland made another fantastic save.

The result meant we dropped out of the top two into third place on a night when message board poster MDWat said: "If you played the match out another 99 times we'd win them all. Just unlucky today."

Hopefully there will be no need for luck tonight as we look to progress.

The teams were;

Burnley: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, Keith Treacy (Ashley Barnes 82), Dean Marney, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs not used: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, David Edgar, Brian Stock, Junior Stanislas, Michael Kightly.

Sheffield Wednesday: Chris Kirkland, Liam Palmer, Oguchi Onyewu, Glenn Loovens, Joe Mattock, Jaques Maghoma (Atdhe Nuhiu 68), Jose Semedo, Kieran Lee, Chris Maguire (Rhys McCabe 90+3), Connor Wickham, Caolan Lavery (Jeremy Helan 83). Subs not used: Damian Martinez, Stephen McPhail, Jermaine Johnson, Miguel Llera.

 

Previous Games against Sheffield Wednesday

 

Last 20 Years
Season Comp Ven Res Att  Scorers
2000/01 Division 1 h 1-0 16,372 Davis
    a 0-2 20,184  
2001/02 Division 1 a 2-0 21,766 Taylor, Cook(pen)
    h 1-2 16,081 Taylor(pen)
2002/03 Division 1 a 3-1 17,004 Taylor, Little, I Moore
    h 2-7 17,435 Blake(2 1pen)
2005/06 Championship h 1-2 14,607 G O'Connor(pen)
    a 0-0 24,485  
2006/07 Championship a 1-1 22,425 J O'Connor
    h 1-1 12,745 Elliott
2007/08 Championship a 2-0 18,359 Blake, McCann
    h 1-1 15,326 Akinbiyi
2008/09 Championship a 1-4 23,793 Paterson
    h 2-4 12,449 McCann, Eagles
2012/13 Championship h 3-3 12,122 Austin(3)
    a 2-0 23,677 Treacy, Wallace(pen)
2013/14 Championship a 2-1 22,282 Ings, Vokes
    h 1-1 13,735 Vokes

 

Click HERE to see all previous results against Sheffield Wednesday