Scunny for new look Clarets

Last updated : 22 January 2011 By Tony Scholes

It is only 25 days since we last played Scunthorpe in what was the last game of 2010 and also the last game for Burnley with Brian Laws as manager. With hopes higher after the first away win at Barnsley we turned in the most abject of displays that led to Laws being sacked the following day.

So Scunthorpe, a club Laws has managed, proved to be his last opponents as Burnley boss and now they stand as first opponents for new boss Eddie Howe as he looks to get his Burnley career off to a winning start.

That start has to come away from home and against a club who have an excellent record against us. In 21 league games between the two clubs we have won just five, three at home and two at Scunthorpe. Both of those away wins have come at Glanford Park with the second of them eleven seasons ago and our promotion clincher in May 2000.

Never would the time be better to get another win and hopefully set us up for a climb up the table.

Our Opponents


Scunthorpe sit in 23rd place in the table ahead of the weekend games and go into this game in some horrible form. They have lost eight of their last nine league games, the one they didn't lose being that 2-0 win against us at the Turf.

Their one positive is that no club in the league has won more away games than their six, but the reverse is their home form. The 3-0 win against Crystal Palace on 28th August is their only home win with two draws and no less than eight defeats.

Manager Ian Baraclough, who replaced Southampton bound Nigel Adkins earlier in the season, is doing something about it and has already brought in no less than six new players this month in addition to making Eddie Nolan's move from Preston a permanent one.

The latest of those signings came today when they gave an 18-month deal to Andy Hughes, the Leeds defender.

So it will be a new look Scunthorpe who face us but it will also be a new look Burnley with the new management team in the dug out.

Click HERE to see Scunthorpe's results this season


Team News


Ian Baraclough was delighted to add Mark Duffy (Morecambe) and Andy Hughes (Leeds) to his squad in the last two days but he will have some players missing.

Definitely ruled out are Garry Thompson, Michael O'Connor and Niall Canavan with Rob Jones looking very unlikely to play. There is a doubt over goalkeeper Joe Murphy but better news is that both David Mirfin and Cliff Byrne should be fit.

Because of the injuries they have also recalled Josh Lillis from his loan at Rochdale.

With more new players coming in there were always going to be changes from the team that lost 4-0 at Leeds last week when they lined up: Joe Murphy, Andrew Wright, Paul Reid, Michael Raynes, Eddie Nolan, Michael Collins, Abdi Ibrahim, Sam Togwell, Martyn Woolford, Bobby Grant, Chris Dagnall, Subs: Sam Slocombe, Jonathan Forte, Josh Wright, Matt Godden, Johnathan Williams, Paris Cowan-Hall.

Click HERE to see the full Scunthorpe squad


Eddie Howe has said there will not be any drastic changes and so we can probably expect the team to be similar to the one that drew with Queens Park Rangers a week ago, a game he watched from the stand alongside new assistant boss Jason Tindall.

He's given no clues all week other than to say he's been impressed with the squad during training but maybe someone who hasn't been in the side has impressed him enough to get a place today.

Dean Marney missed out last week but is fit again and the only players unavailable are Chris McCann and Martin Paterson.

Time will tell but as a reminder, the team last week was: Lee Grant, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Michael Duff, Danny Fox, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Jack Cork, Chris Eagles, Chris Iwelumo, Jay Rodriguez. Subs: Brian Jensen, David Edgar, Andre Bikey, Brian Easton, Kevin McDonald, Ross Wallace, Steven Thompson.

Last Time We Met


Joey Gudjonsson
Joey Gudjonsson - came closest to scoring for Burnley
We probably couldn't have chosen a worse time to visit Glanford Park than on our last visit which was in August 2007. They had just won promotion and were playing their first home game in the second tier for years.

We lost the game 2-0 with both goals coming in the second half and no one could complain at the result, although it was a game we could have won ourselves in the early stages.

We'd beaten promotion favourites West Brom at home a week earlier to kick start the season and we were confident of getting something at Scunthorpe.

Surprisingly for the second game of a season we gave league debut to two central defenders. Wayne Thomas and Steven Caldwell had played the previous week but, by the time we got to Scunthorpe, Thomas had been sold and Caldwell was injured.

David Unsworth and Clarke Carlisle, both signed during the week, came in although Unsworth had played in the League Cup tie at Grimsby in midweek.

With Scunthorpe expected to get off to a blistering start we hoped our lads would be prepared but it couldn't have been a more different start. In the first twenty minutes the home side hardly got a kick, created nothing, and down the other end both of the new men headed over.

We won numerous corners and had several chances to score but missed them all. The closest we came was through Joey Gudjonsson and his effort was so close the entire away support, at the far end, went up in celebration.

Twenty minutes gone, only one side in it, and it was the same for the next seventy minutes but it wasn't us. The game changed dramatically and Scunthorpe had the upper hand for the rest of the game.

Gabor Kiraly had a nightmare ten minutes, thankfully without conceding, although it later transpired that he'd picked up an injury that could have become very serious. How he was able to carry on was hard to understand.

With no goals at half time we were still in with a chance but Martin Paterson scored two minutes in and the writing was on the wall. Jim Goodwin got the second and we finally wakened up. We dominated the later stages of the game without every really threatening their goal and when the final whistle blew at 2-0 we really could have no complaints.

The teams were;

Scunthorpe: Joe Murphy, Cliff Byrne, Andy Crosby, Izzy Iriekpen (Andy Butler 24), Marcus Williams, Jonathan Forte (Matt Sparrow 67), Jim Goodwin, Ian Baraclough, Kevan Hurst, Paul Hayes, Martin Paterson (Cleveland Taylor 87). Subs not used: Josh Lillis, Kelly Youga.

Burnley: Gabor Kiraly, Michael Duff, Clarke Carlisle, David Unsworth, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott (Ade Akinbiyi 66), Joey Gudjonsson, Chris McCann (John Spicer 79), Jon Harley (Kyle Lafferty 57), Robbie Blake, Andy Gray. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, James O'Connor.

Previous games against Scunthorpe


Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1991/92

4

h

1-1

8,419

Farrell

..

a

2-2

5,303

Conroy(pen) SM Davis

1999/2000

2

h

1-2

10,752

Payton

..

a

2-1

5,862

Mellon Little

2000/01

FA

h

2-2

8,054

I Moore Johnrose

..

a

1-1

4,709

Payton - lost on penalties

2003/04

LC

a

3-2

2,915

Chadwick Blake I Moore

2007/08

C

a

0-2

6,975

.

..

h

2-0

14,516

Blake Akinbiyi

2010/11

C

h

0-2

15,043

.



Click HERE to see all our results against Scunthorpe