Preston here in rare cup visit

It's an incredible statistic, given the history between the two clubs going right back 125 years to the formation of the Football League, that this will be only our second ever meeting in either of the top two cup competitions.

Burnley and Preston have never faced each other in the FA Cup and the only previous clash in the League Cup came twenty years ago when Burnley, as now a division above Preston, recorded a 6-2 aggregate win in the first round.

First Burnley start for Alex Cisak

We've certainly played each other in the league often enough since. Following a promotion we found ourselves in the same division in 1996/97 season and in every season after that until we won promotion to the Premier League in 2009.

The league rivalry was resurrected for just one season, 2010/11, after which Preston dropped into League One with those last two league games ending in wins for Burnley.

Sean Dyche has insisted that he'll be playing a strong team tonight. There will be no squad rotation and no blooding young players, but he'll play a full strength team to give the Clarets the best possible chance of reaching the last 32 in the competition.

He will have to make one change though with goalkeeper Tom Heaton suspended following the most controversial of red cards in the defeat at Brighton when Darren Sheldrake appeared to fail to understand the laws of the game according to former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher.

Almost certainly Alex Cisak, who came on as a substitute immediately after the dismissal of Heaton, will get his first start for Burnley tonight when he steps in, but he is going to use this as an opportunity to make the most of his opportunity and stake a claim to be the first choice goalkeeper.

Admitting how difficult it can be for a goalkeeper coming on in such circumstances, he said: "But I was buzzing to come on and get a game but obviously I'd like to start. That's football and hopefully I can start against Preston."

Looking forward to tonight he added: "A win is vital for us. We need a good performance as well for the fans and be in the hat for the next round. It's a big game for the fans and all the players want to win so you don't need any other incentive.

It could well be that Cisak for Heaton is the only change to the team that played Brighton. If so, it will give Keith Treacy a first home start this season and, if so, it would be nice to think he would play as well as he did the last time these two sides met at Turf Moor.

Burnley's team could be: Alex Cisak, Kieran Trippier, Kevin Long, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, Keith Treacy, Dean Marney, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs: Nick Liversedge, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Ben Mee, Brian Stock, Junior Stanislas, Ryan Noble.

Preston have made an interesting start to the season. Having played four times they've neither won nor lost in the league. Home draws against Wolves (0-0) and Milton Keynes Franchise (2-2) have been followed by away draws at Rotherham (0-0) and Sunday's amazing 4-4 draw at Northampton against Coventry.

In between all that they were given their biggest derby game in the first round of the COCUP and at home against Blackpool. Almost seventeen and a half thousand were there to witness Tom Clarke win it with a late headed goal.

It's difficult to know what team Simon Grayson might send out for the game. He's suggested he might make numerous changes after the disappointing performance against Coventry. He said: "We were always going to change it around anyway because it's a quick turnaround of games for us so there will be a few changes. There might be a few forced ones as well, one or two players picked up knocks at the weekend."

The team for the Coventry game was: Declan Rudd, Tom Clarke, David Buchanan, Keith Keane, Paul Huntington, Bailey Wright, Lee Holmes, John Welsh, Kevin Davies, Joe Garner, Will Hayhurst. Subs: Thorsten Stuckmann, Scott Laird, Stuart Beavon, Iain Hume, John Mousinho, Joel Byrom, Chris Humphrey. 

Last Time They Were Here

It's not far short of three years since Preston last played at Turf Moor. Saturday 11th September 2010 was the date with the game televised live at tea time by the BBC.

It proved to be Burnley's game in the end but only after the most remarkable of comebacks in the last few minutes of the game, before which a defeat, inspired by now Burnley player Keith Treacy, looked all but certain.

Brian Laws made just one change for Burnley, David Edgar coming in at right back for Tyrone Mears who was serving a one match ban after being sent off at Swansea a week earlier.

Chris Iwelumo got a hat trick

We started well and were in front on nine minutes and this after Preston had started the better. We won a corner down the right and Chris Iwelumo headed us in front from the corner taken by Ross Wallace, the ball just about going in off North End's Treacy who had been positioned on the line.

Preston equalised midway through the half via an Adam Barton goal but he was fortunate after getting away with the most blatant of hand ball offences.

It got ugly for a while after Danny Fox clattered in to Josh King. He won the ball but took King out with the Manchester United loanee stretchered off. Referee Kevin Friend was forced to book Wade Elliott and Billy Jones as they got involved in the afters. It proved to be significant, certain as far as Jones was concerned.

Edgar, standing in at right back, was being led a merry dance by Treacy and he gave the visitors the lead when he scored from a tight angle.

We could have no complaints at being behind but we started the second half much better. As we searched for the equaliser we made three substitutions which resulted in Elliott going to right back.

He was caught out by Treacy who got down the flank and crossed. Andre Bikey got it all wrong and allowed Jon Parkin to score spectacularly.

3-1 down and it all looked lost, but then Jones, booked in that early incident with Elliott, got a second yellow card from referee Friend for time wasting and the game changed to the point where we just simply battered them for the remainder of the game.

With six minutes to go Iwelumo got his second with a superb volley from an Alexander pass and it was very much game on. With 87 minutes and 45 seconds showing on the clock we got out of jail as Iwelumo headed us level to complete his hat trick.

We'd got a point but we continued to pour forward and exactly 1 minute and 27 seconds after the equaliser we won it when Jay Rodriguez, one of the three substitutes, headed in from a corner.

A fantastic finish and a fantastic result.

The teams were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, David Edgar (Jay Rodriguez 68), Clarke Carlisle, Andre Bikey, Danny Fox, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Dean Marney (Jack Cork 59), Martin Paterson (Chris Eagles 60), Chris Iwelumo, Ross Wallace. Subs not used: Lee Grant, Michael Duff, Leon Cort, Steven Thompson.

Preston: Andy Lonergan, Billy Jones, Craig Morgan, Sean St. Ledger, Callum Davidson, Paul Coutts (Paul Hayes 65), Matty James (Darel Russell 54), Adam Barton, Keith Treacy, Josh King (Paul Parry 28), Jon Parkin. Subs not used: Andreas Arestidou, David Gray, Wayne Brown, Chris Brown.

Previous Games against Preston

Click HERE to see all previous results against Preston