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It doesn't seem five minutes since we were excitedly looking forward to the new season but here we are in December and about to go into a game that will see us half way through the league season.
Southampton are our visitors. We renewed acquaintance with them three seasons ago after not having played them since the 1970s. We are still awaiting a first home win against them in these recent seasons although we did finally get one over them at St. Mary's towards the end of last season.
We have to go back over 32 years to the last home win against them. That was in September 1976 when goals from Ray Hankin and Peter Noble gave us a 2-0 win. That first goal proved to be Hankin's last for Burnley in what was his last home appearance before signing for Leeds.
Tomorrow we go into the game at different ends of the table. We are currently fourth in the Championship whilst Southampton are fourth from the bottom albeit now four points clear of the drop zone.
Southampton have become something of a crisis club in recent years. Relegated in 2005, they weren't able to get back up into the Premier League during those vital first two years when they had the benefit of parachute payments.
They did make the play offs in 2006/07 but last season was a difficult one for them and they could so easily have been relegated and found themselves playing in the third tier of English football for the first time since 1959/60, the season we were Champions of England.
Big decisions had to be made in the summer and that included the return of the duck shooting Rupert Lowe, the previously ousted chairman. A new manager arrived in Dutchman Jan Poortvliet.
He set about changing the squad and brought in a number of players including Morgan Schneiderlin from Strasbourg and he cost over £1 million. Other signings were generally free moves for such as Lee Holmes (Derby), Chris Perry (Luton), Paul Wotton (Plymouth), Tommy Forecast (Spurs) and Anthony Pulis (Stoke).
To add to that they also have four loan players in Tomas Pekhart (Spurs), Jordan Robertson (Sheffield United), Ryan Smith (Millwall) and Alex Pearce (Reading).
The Robertson deal with Sheffield United was a loan swap that saw Nathan Dyer move to Bramall Lane, and Dyer isn't the only high profile departure. Two others, Grzegorz Rasiak and Stern John, are currently out on loan to Watford and Bristol City respectively whilst players such as Jhon Viafara and Inigo Idiakez were released.
Amongst the other departures are Andrew Davies to Stoke, Jermaine Wright to Blackpool, Youssef Safri to Qatar Sports Club and former Burnley target Marek Saganowski who is now with Aalborg.
The first half of the season has been an interesting one. They have won four away games at Derby, Doncaster, Preston and Reading, but only Norwich have failed to pick up any points at St. Mary's leaving Southampton with the worst home record in the league.
It was always going to be a tough season for them and that's how it has worked out. Heavily in debt it now looks as though other players will have to be sold in January and that could make the second half of the season even tougher.
Olly Lancashire, Jake Thomson and Jason Euell are all back in the squad for this game and there's good news for Southampton with Morgan Schneiderlin including in the squad after injury.
The game will come too soon for Lee Holmes who is back in training whilst Ryan Smith is still some way away from returning to first team action. Former Claret Wayne Thomas won't feature, he's been out all season with a knee injury and a return for him is some way away.
Jan Poortvliet will select from: Kevlin Davis, Tommy Forecast, Lloyd James, Jack Cork, Chris Perry, Paul Wotton, Olly Lancashire, Andrew Surman, Alex Pearce, Rudi Skacel, Morgan Schneiderlin, Romain Gasmi, Simon Gillett, Jake Thomson, Jason Euell, Alex Lallana, David McGoldrick, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Jordan Robertson.
Michael Duff remains doubtful with the calf injury he suffered in the warm up before the Sheffield United game last Saturday and Chris McCann is also unlikely to feature again because of illness. It has also now come to light that Jay Rodriguez is also out with illness and so it looks as though Owen Coyle will select from the same sixteen as were on duty on Tuesday.
I expect the same starting line up which is: Brian Jensen, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, Kevin McDonald, Chris Eagles, Robbie Blake, Martin Paterson. Subs: Diego Penny, Alan Mahon, Alex MacDonald, Ade Akinbiyi, Steven Thompson.
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Southampton could so easily have had more, between the two goals they twice hit the woodwork as the Clarets made an horrendous start to the game.
Things got slightly better and we did pull one back on the half hour from Chris McCann and could have even got ourselves an equaliser through Andy Gray, but had we gone in level at the interval it would have been very much undeserved.
The start to the second half was hardly better as we conceded again, but we did improve after that and were even in with a chance of a point when substitute Ade Akinbiyi scored a second with seven minutes to go.
But we couldn't get a third and fell to a 3-2 defeat, and in all honesty no one could complain about the result, it could so easily have been a much heavier defeat. It gave Southampton a second successive 3-2 win at the Turf.
The teams were;
Burnley: Gabor Kiraly, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell (David Unsworth 10), Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott (Ade Akinbiyi 69), John Spicer, Chris McCann, Kyle Lafferty, Robbie Blake (Alan Mahon 57), Andy Gray. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Jon Harley.
Southampton: Kelvin Davis, Philip Ifill, Wayne Thomas, Jhon Viafara, Gregory Vignal, Nathan Dyer, Inigo Idiakez (Andrew Surman 86), Christian Dailly, Jason Euell, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Stern John (Grzegorz Rasiak 70). Subs not used: Bartosz Bailkowski, Rudi Skacel, Marek Saganowski.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
2005/06 | C | a | 1-1 | 21,592 | Akinbiyi |
. | . | h | 1-1 | 10,636 | Gray |
2006/07 | C | h | 2-3 | 13,051 | Jones Gray |
. | . | a | 0-0 | 20,486 | . |
2007/08 | C | h | 2-3 | 10,944 | McCann Akinbiyi |
. | . | a | 1-0 | 21,762 | Caldwell |