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Ahead of our last home game against West Ham I reported that we'd failed to win any of our ten previous games against them. The win that afternoon was our first against them since 1978.
Today we go into our next home game against Portsmouth and the run is identical, ten games without a win since we last beat them in February 1982, not only in February of that year but on today's date 27th February, exactly 28 years ago.
On that occasion it was a 3-0 win with goals from Steve Taylor, Micky Phelan and Derek Scott and we lined up that afternoon: Alan Stevenson, Brian Laws, Micky Phelan, Martin Dobson, David Holt, Andy Wharton, Derek Scott, Tommy Cassidy, Kevin Young, Billy Hamilton, Steve Taylor (Eric Potts).
Just as we ended the West Ham run, then we certainly need to end the Portsmouth run. The points would almost certainly see us climb out of the relegation positions.
I think more has been said and written about Portsmouth Football Club in the last few weeks than any other. Such has been the chaos down there that even John Terry's extra-marital affairs and the Ashley & Cheryl story have been hard pushed to claim the headlines.
It's been an amazing story (or should that be spelt Storrie?) of a club that has had four owners this season, hasn't bothered (or been able) to pay the wages a few times and is reportedly £70 million in debt and until yesterday was facing a winding up order in the High Court.
Four owners in the same season, and apparently none of them with any interest in the club or the money to keep it running as a going concern. I've been watching Burnley since 1960, a total of fifty years, and in that time we've only had four different chairmen.
It's all a far cry from the heady days under Harry Redknapp and the FA Cup triumph of less than two years ago, a final that saw two current Burnley players come on as substitutes in the last twenty minutes, David Nugent for Pompey and Steven Thompson for Cardiff.
They currently sit bottom of the Premier League, seven points adrift of ourselves and the biblical outfit from Horwich and they are set to lose over half of their points after going into administration yesterday.
That in itself was good news because it means they can't now face a winding up order in the High Court on Monday brought by HMRC for at least £11 million in unpaid taxes. Administrator Andrew Andronikou was almost laughable as he spoke yesterday.
Once again he spoke about selling players outside the transfer window. When that was first suggested, manager Avram Grant said he thought it was a joke. He added that he'd realised, after being at Portsmouth for a few months, that jokes weren't always funny.
There's even been some confusion over which Portsmouth players might not be available for the game through injury. Some reports list players as out whilst others suggest they will play.
Hermann Hreidarsson is one who will play despite an achilles injury. Those who could be doubtful are Frederic Piquionne and Anthony Vanden Borre whilst some reports suggest that Tal Ben-Haim and Tommy Smith (both groin), Kevin-Prince Boateng (ankle), Michael Brown (back) and Aaron Mokoena (knee) are ruled out.
There were problems on the training ground this week between Brown and Jamie O'Hara but it isn't thought it is a Terry/Bridge situation where one refuses to play if the other one is in the team.
Last Saturday they were beaten by Stoke with the winner coming in stoppage time. For that game they lined up: David James, Steve Finnan, Nadir Belhadj, Hermann Hreidarsson, Pape Bouba Diop, Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, Jamie O'Hara, Mark Wilson, Hassan Yebda, Frederic Piquionne, Aruna Dindane. Subs: Jamie Ashdown, Ricardo Rocha, Hayden Mullins, Angelos Basinas, John Utaka, Nwankwo Kanu, Danny Webber.
Brian Laws will have to make a change from the team that lost at Aston Villa six days ago. David Nugent is ineligible to play in this game as Premier League rules don't allow for a loan player to play against his parent club.
Almost certainly Martin Paterson will come in to the starting line up and it will be his first start in the Premier League since the 3-1 win against Sunderland back in September, the day Nugent made his home debut as a substitute, coming on for Paterson, and scoring twice.
There could also be a further boost with Graham Alexander close to fitness and he could certainly come back into the squad.
However, it is likely that we will keep the team similar to the one that played at Villa and we could line up: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Leon Cort, Danny Fox, Jack Cork, Andre Bikey, Kevin McDonald, Martin Paterson, Steven Fletcher, Chris Eagles. Subs from: Nicky Weaver, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Robbie Blake, Steven Thompson, Frédéric Nimani.
Portsmouth's last league visit to Turf Moor was during their promotion season of 2002/03. After getting off to a poor start, losing all of the first four league games, Burnley had recovered and went into the game on the back of an unbeaten run of ten games.
We came up against a Pompey side who had lost just once all season and in the first half they were head and shoulders better than us but led just 1-0 at half time with a Nigel Quashie goal.
For some time in the second half we were very much the better side but two poor mistakes, one at either end, cost us. Firstly, Marlon Beresford let a soft one in from Svetoslav Todorov and then Dean West hit a penalty against the underside of the bar.
The game was over at 2-0 and Kevin Harper added a third a few minutes from time to complete the scoring.
The teams were;
Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Ian Cox (Dimitrios Papadopoulos 72), Arthur Gnohere, Graham Branch (Brad Maylett 65), Glen Little, Steve Davis, Lee Briscoe, Ian Moore (Paul Weller 26), Gareth Taylor, Robbie Blake. Subs not used: Paul Cook, Tony Grant.
Portsmouth: Shaka Hislop, Steve Stone, Arjan de Zeeuw, Linvoy Primus, Matthew Taylor, Paul Ritchie, Lassina Diabate (Carl Robinson 55), Paul Merson, Nigel Quashie, Svetoslav Todorov (Kevin Harper 77), Vincent Pericard. Subs not used: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Gary O'Neil, Mark Burchill.
We have to go back some years for the last top flight meeting between the two sides at Turf Moor. That came in April 1959. It was 0-0 at half time but Ray Pointer gave us the lead ten minutes into the second half.
Portsmouth drew level on 74 minutes but Burnley were back in front four minutes later when Brian Pilkington scored to give us a 2-1 win.
The Burnley team was: Adam Blacklaw, John Angus, Dave Smith, Bobby Seith, Tommy Cummings, Brian Miller, John Connelly, Jimmy McIlroy, Ray Pointer, Albert Cheesebrough, Brian Pilkington.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1994/95 | 1 | a | 0-2 | 9,067 | . |
| . | . | h | 1-2 | 10,666 | Eyres |
2000/01 | 1 | h | 1-1 | 15,494 | Weller |
. | . | a | 0-2 | 12,941 | . |
2001/02 | 1 | h | 1-1 | 14,123 | Taylor |
| . | . | a | 1-1 | 18,020 | Johnson |
2002/03 | 1 | h | 0-3 | 15,788 | . |
. | . | a | 0-1 | 19,221 | . |
2007/08 | LC | h | 0-1 | 8,202 | . |
2009/10 | PL | a | 0-2 | 17,822 | . |