My first ever visit to Tranmere was for a friendly, but that's over forty years ago. I'm not aware of us having played a non competitive game against them since and this will be our first visit there in almost thirteen years.
There is no doubt that we've improved with each game and at Carlisle on Saturday I thought we played some really good football, particularly in the first half, and that's the information that's been passed to Tranmere boss Ronnie Moore.
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| Kieran Trippier is not expected to play |
Moore is expecting a difficult game. "They'll move the ball quicker and they'll be the strongest team we'll play before the season starts," he said. "They had a decent result on Saturday at Carlisle and John McMahon spoke to someone who said they were superb.
"It's a tester for us and it will be a tough game. They've got quality players in there and if we give the ball away we're going to know about it. We need to get the ball and move it a lot quicker than we did on Saturday (at Accrington), but it's not an FA Cup game, it's a pre-season game that we're looking to get fitness from."
Sean Dyche is looking to progress the pre-season so that more players get full 90 minutes so we can potentially expect less substitutions tonight than in previous games.
"We're trying to ramp up the sharpness and the training schedule is changing now from the real heavy work into the short and sharp," Dyche said. "Obviously now you want the consistency of performance to last for 90 minutes."
Full backs Kieran Trippier and Ben Mee missed the game at Carlisle and neither are expected to feature tonight although both should be fit to play in the home friendly against Sparta Rotterdam on Saturday.
With Jason Gilchrist also out with a minor injury, Burnley will almost certainly select from the same players who were on duty at Carlisle.
They are: Tom Heaton, Alex Cisak, Luke O'Neill, Alex Coleman, Michael Duff, Kevin Long, David Edgar, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, Joseph Mills, Ross Wallace, Keith Treacy, Dean Marney, Steven Hewitt, Scott Arfield, David Jones, Brian Stock, Junior Stanislas, Danny Ings, Charlie Austin, Sam Vokes, Ryan Noble.
Tranmere, unlike Burnley, are unbeaten in pre-season. In their last game a Chris Atkinson goal, coming in his first appearance for the club, earned them a 1-1 draw at Accrington on Saturday.
Their team included former Claret Stephen Foster and he's likely to feature again tonight in a similar line up.
On Saturday their team was: Jason Mooney, Ben Sampayo, Stephen Foster (Ian Goodison), Ash Taylor, Evan Horwood, Joe Thompson (Abdulai Baggie), Chris Atkinson, James Rowe (Max Power), Andy Robinson, Ryan Lowe, Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro. Subs not used: Owen Fon Williams, Jake Kirby, Cole Stockton, Liam Davies.
Other than the last friendly having been won 4-0, with goals from Frank Casper, Dave Thomas and Steve Kindon (2), I can remember very little about it. To be honest I can remember nothing about it but I certainly recall our last league visit there.
It came after a 1-1 home draw against Portsmouth a week earlier when Paul Cook was targeted by the Turf Moor crowd. On the following Friday night he was in the team at Tranmere but Stan Ternent made some shock changes and played John Mullin and Graham Branch up front with Andy Cooke left out altogether and Andy Payton relegated to the bench.
It worked, although Payton was eventually needed, in what was probably our best performance of the season to date.
Steve Davis opened the scoring right on half time with a deflected free kick and then headed a second ten minutes into the second half. We looked to be cruising but in under ten minutes it was all square at 2-2.
We'd had to deal with an aerial bombardment with the long throws in particular from Dave Challinor but it was a rocket of a shot from Jason Koumas and then Clint Hill scored from close range.
We still looked likely though and right at the end Payton, on as a substitute for Branch, headed home a Lee Briscoe cross to win it for us.
The teams were;
Tranmere: John Achterberg, Dave Challinor, Clint Hill, Steve Yates, Alan Morgan, Richard Hinds, Sean Flynn, Andy Parkinson, Paul Rideout (Jason Koumas), Scott Taylor, Wayne Allison. Subs not used: Eric Nixon, Graham Allen, Wayne Gill, Iain Hume.
Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Steve Davis, Ian Cox, Mitchell Thomas, Lee Briscoe, Glen Little, Kevin Ball, Micky Mellon, Paul Cook (Ronnie Jepson), John Mullin (Paul Weller), Graham Branch (Andy Payton). Subs not used: Paul Crichton, Lenny Johnrose.