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There's a lot of water passed under the bridge since Burnley last played Reading in a league game. That last game was two years ago next Thursday although there have been three meeting since, two in the play offs and last season when they gained some revenge by knocking us out of the FA Cup.
Ahead of that last meeting we sat four points behind them and again the difference right now is four points although this time we hold the advantage.
This is the start, for us, of a run of games against teams in the top half of the league, games that will surely give a much stronger indication as to where we might end up this season. Today's is a tough one and then, before we next set foot on Turf Moor, we've the cup tie at Aston Villa followed by tough away games at QPR and Norwich.
It would be good to go into that tough run of games with another win to set us up, hopefully, for a first away win of the season in the league at either Loftus Road or Carrow Road.
It's still difficult to work out exactly what did happen at Reading during the 2008/09 season. When we played at the Madejski in October 2008 they were right up there as promotion favourites and they just couldn't stop scoring goals at home.
They'd scored 19 goals in the previous four home games and added another three against us in a fully deserved 3-1 win, with our goal coming right at the end from Chris McCann.
A 1-0 win against Wolves in January 2009 saw them clear in second place with the best home record in the league. Then, they went on a shocker of a run and didn't win again in front of their own supporters until a 2-1 victory over Blackpool in late November last year, a run lasting ten months.
That run saw them lose their automatic promotion place. They did get into the play offs but of course were beaten by Burnley in the semi-final, including yet another home defeat. It also saw them say farewell to Steve Coppell immediately after that play off defeat.
He was replaced by Brendan Rodgers, and he did last long enough to enjoy that win over Blackpool. However, by Christmas he'd gone and Brian McDermott, who had acted as caretaker boss some six years earlier, was given the job again temporarily and then permanently.
He's done a good job too. By the end of last season he'd lifted them into ninth place whilst this season they are currently just below that position but so close are things right now that they were in the play off places at the end of September.
There have been a number of changes on the field too at the Madejski and the team that they name today will be significantly different from the one that we faced in the play offs.
Reading will be without Brynjar Gunnarsson. The 35-year-old midfielder picked up an injury in training and hasn't played since mid-September. To add to that, Julian Kelly, Jay Tabb and Jake Taylor have been out. Tabb has been back in the reserves and is close to being fully fit although he's not expected to feature today.
McDermott is expected to name a side similar to the one that went down 1-0 at Bristol City on Tuesday. That team was: Adam Fedirici, Andy Griffin, Ian Harte, Matt Mills, Zurab Khizanishvili, Jem Karacan, Chris Armstrong, Jimmy Kebe, Jobi McAnuff, Noel Hunt, Shane Long. Subs: Alex McCarthy, Alex Pearce, Shaun Cummings, Hal Robson-Kanu, Michail Antonio, Brian Howard, Simon Church.
Brian Laws will be hoping to welcome Danny Fox back today. He missed the midweek game against Barnsley after being forced off with a thigh injury at Sheffield United last Saturday. His place was taken by Brian Easton, making his league debut for the Clarets, and as well as Easton did it is likely that Fox will come straight back in.
Michael Duff was fit enough to return to the bench on Tuesday and he's likely to be named as a substitute again today. Injuries have made it a difficult start to the season for Duff. He was in the team for the opening game against Nottingham Forest after a good pre-season but had to be substituted after half an hour with a calf injury.
Once fit again he's had to wait for his chance and that chance came when he came on at Millwall after Clarke Carlisle was sent off. Unfortunately for Duff, a second start this season was taken from him last week with another injury.
One the subject of Carlisle, he's enjoying his media work whilst suspended and was last night alongside Cardiff boss Dave Jones at Ashton Gate for Sky's coverage of the Bristol City v QPR game. Today he completes his suspension and will be available again on Wednesday for the trip to Villa.
You'd suspect, Fox for Easton apart, that Laws will stick to the team that beat Barnsley. If Fox is fit I expect us to line up: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Leon Cort, Andre Bikey, Danny Fox, Jack Cork, Wade Elliott, Dean Marney, Chris Eagles, Chris Iwelumo, Jay Rodriguez. Subs from: Lee Grant, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Brian Easton, Graham Alexander, Ross Wallace, Steven Thompson, Martin Paterson.
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Burnley had to make changes ahead of the game. Michael Duff missed the game through illness and Clarke Carlisle was injured. Captain Steven Caldwell only came through a late fitness test to play in a makeshift defence that saw Graham Alexander having to move back into the right-back position.
But how well that defence played against a strong Reading side and when they were beaten they found the Beast probably having his best ever game for Burnley. He made an outstanding double save in the first half but bettered that with a wonderful reaction save to deny Reading's Andre Bikey early in the second half.
Kevin Doyle hit the foot of the post too in the first half and, although we had a couple of half chances, we went in fairly thankful to still be level at 0-0.
If anything Reading got better in the second half and at times we really were hanging on. But we continued to defend brilliantly. When they did get through the Beast looked unbeatable and just for good measure they hit the woodwork again. Once more it was Doyle but this time with a header that hit the angle of post and bar.
Robbie Blake came on for Martin Paterson, Kevin McDonald for the injured Christian Kalvenes with Chris McCann dropping to left back, and Jay Rodriguez for Steven Thompson.
We were still level with nine minutes to go, then Robbie Blake stepped in. Grezza headed the ball out of defence to Blake and with one touch he found Wade Elliott who was playing on the right wing.
From then it was just inspirational from our little magician. He turned and got into the D. He'd half the Reading team surrounding him but they couldn't stop him placing a delightful left footer right into the bottom corner. The shorts came down and, for the first time at home, the Bad Beat Bobs were on display.
Reading had been the better side but we'd played well too just to stay in there. I wrote at the time: "In all honesty our performance deserved something. And when you've got the little magician up front to score a goal like that anything can happen. We've come up against the best this league can offer and we've beaten them."
The teams were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Graham Alexander, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Christian Kalvenes (Kevin McDonald 71), Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, Chris McCann, Chris Eagles, Martin Paterson (Robbie Blake 58), Steven Thompson (Jay Rodriguez 78). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Remco van der Schaaf.
Reading: Marcus Hahnemann, Liam Rosenior, Ivar Ingimarsson, Andre Bikey, Chris Armstrong, Jimmy Kebe, Kalifa Cisse, James Harper, Stephen Hunt, Kevin Doyle, Noel Hunt. Subs not used: Mikkel Andersen, Alex Pearce, Jem Karacan, Marek Matejovsky, Shane Long.
We repeated that scoreline in the very last Turf Moor game of that epic season beating Reading 1-0 this time in the first leg of the play off semi-final with a penalty from Graham Alexander.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1992/93 | 2 | h | 1-1 | 8,382 | Harper |
| . | . | a | 0-1 | 6,398 | . |
1993/94 | 2 | a | 1-2 | 5,855 | Eyres(pen) |
| . | . | h | 0-1 | 11,650 | . |
1994/95 | 1 | a | 0-0 | 8,150 | . |
| . | . | h | 1-2 | 9,841 | Parkinson |
1998/99 | 2 | a | 1-1 | 10,080 | Payton |
| . | . | h | 1-1 | 9,366 | Reid |
1999/2000 | 2 | a | 0-0 | 6,149 | . |
| . | . | h | 3-0 | 14,436 | Davis Payton Wright |
2002/03 | 1 | a | 0-3 | 12,009 | . |
| . | . | h | 2-5 | 14,420 | I Moore West |
2003/04 | 1 | h | 3-0 | 9,473 | Blake Chaplow Chadwick |
| . | . | a | 2-2 | 10,543 | I Moore May |
2004/05 | C | a | 0-0 | 15,400 | . |
| . | . | h | 0-0 | 11,392 | . |
2005/06 | C | a | 1-2 | 14,027 | Akinbiyi |
| . | . | h | 0-3 | 12,888 | . |
2006/07 | FAC | a | 2-3 | 11,514 | Akinbiyi G O'Connor |
2008/09 | C | a | 1-3 | 18,621 | McCann |
| . | . | h | 1-0 | 11,538 | Blake |
| . | PO | h | 1-0 | 18,853 | Alexander(p) |
| . | .a | a | 2-0 | 19,909 | Paterson Thompson |
2009/10 | FA | a | 0-1 | 12,910 | . |