Ten weeks on - and we're back

It's become something of an annual event, this trip to the Crown Ground, or is it the Interlink or even the Fraser Eagle? It's not so long that we sent a second string to play our Unibond League neighbours but since they reached the Conference and beyond it has been a Burnley first team.

Last year it was against league opposition for the first time, and it is again this year although they had something of a battle to stay up, a battle that was eventually won comfortably even before Boston had the ten points taken off them.

This will be a second run out for Stanley who defeated Clitheroe 2-0 with two goals from new signing Mark Roberts. It is very much a new look Stanley team with Roberts one of six new players brought in by manager John Coleman since the end of last season. The new signings are:

Paul Carden (midfield) from Burton Albion
John Miles (forward) from Macclesfield Town
Kenny Arthur (goalkeeper) from Partick Thistle
Rosco Dsane (forward) from AFC Wimbledon
Mark Roberts (defender) from Northwich Victoria
Graham Branch (left side) from Burnley

Coleman will take his side to Scotland for pre-season games as he sets his sights on a better second season in the league. Their ambitions are limited and only this week his chairman Eric Whalley admitted that his real target was to attract Burnley and Blackburn fans to Stanley for games to boost the crowds. They weren't good last season despite good away followings, and there are worries that there could be a drop in this their second league season.


One to Watch
There will be one player on the Stanley side out to impress not just his new manager, and not just his new supporters, but the visiting Burnley fans as well. Graham Branch signed only this week for Stanley after having left the Clarets at the end of last season.

He played half of the game at Clitheroe, at left back, but this will be his first home game for his new club against the club he's just spent eight and a half years with.

Today will see him come up against a lot of his former team mates and in the Burnley squad only two of our three new signings, Gabor Kiraly and Besart Berisha, will be new to him. He's certain to know the opposition better than he'll know his own side.

Accrington are his sixth club, including two loan spells at Bury and Wigan, and he will be looking to establish himself in the side after failing to start a game for the Clarets throughout the entire 2006/07 season.

His last appearance for Burnley was as a second half substitute last March in the 2-0 defeat at Preston, but his last start was on the last day of the 2005/06 season when we drew 1-1 with Luton at home.

I am sure the visiting fans tomorrow will be wishing him all the best for the new season, but only after we've beaten them in this our first pre-season game.


Team News
There's little news from the Accrington camp, unfortunately one of the more difficult clubs in the Football League to get information from. However we can expect them to field all of their new signings with potentially a couple of trialists featuring in their squad.

One player who won't feature is striker Paul Mullin, brother of former Claret John Mullin. He's been ruled out with an injury and is touch and go for the start of the new season.

Click HERE to see the full Accrington squad
Steve Cotterill is taking all twenty members of his full time squad with him and it is expected that all will feature at some stage during the game. It will include all three summer signings, Gabor Kiraly, Besart Berisha and yesterday's signing Robbie Blake and the only player missing will be Garreth O'Connor who is currently training with his old club Bournemouth.

Our squad is:

Goalkeepers: Brian Jensen, Gabor Kiraly
Defenders: Steven Caldwell, Michael Duff, Stephen Foster, Jon Harley, Wayne Thomas
Midfielders: Besart Berisha, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, Steve Jones, Alan Mahon, Chris McCann, James O'Connor, John Spicer
Forwards: Ade Akinbiyi, Robbie Blake, Andy Gray, Kyle Lafferty, Jay Rodriguez


Last Time Round
The game in July last year was played on a very poor surface, and one that will surely be much different to the one we'll play on later today. A year ago we were going through a very dry spell of weather, yes we really do get them from time to time, and the pitch was in a dreadful state with more sand than Blackpool beach.

Alan Mahon - Man of the Match performance

Both sides made extensive use of their squads, with no fewer than 21 players used and only Brian Jensen featuring in both halves. And it was very much a game of two halves, with the home side taking a two goal advantage into half time and the Clarets coming back to eventually win it 3-2.

Andy Mangan and David Brown got the Accrington goals in an uninspiring first half. Both came following crosses from Gary Roberts who wouldn't be a bad player if he didn't spend too much of his time diving around trying to win free kicks and get other players into trouble.

They were just about worth their interval lead, but there was no doubting that the Clarets, inspired by Alan Mahon were the better side in the second half. It was a Mahon free kick, following a foul on new signing Steve Jones, that led to the first goal. His kick came back off the bar but Andy Gray was in first to head home the rebound from close range.

Almost immediately it was 2-2 as Mahon played a through ball for Jones to go one-on-one with the keeper and he made no mistake at all, putting it to the keeper's right into the bottom corner.

There was only ever going to be one winner now and the only surprise is that Accrington held out as long as they did. They conceded a free kick some thirty yards from goal and this time Mahon didn't need Gray to get on the end of a rebound as he curled into the top corner.

We played out time comfortably to get our pre-season off to a winning start, and all eyes were on Alan Mahon, without doubt the star of the show for the Clarets.

The teams were;

First Half

Accrington Stanley: Rob Elliot, Danny Ventre, Phil Edwards, Michael Welch, Julien N'Da, Simon Howell, Chris Sargeant, David Brown, Andy Mangan, Jason Walker, Gary Roberts.

Burnley (4-4-2): Brian Jensen, Duane Courtney, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Graham Branch, Wade Elliott, Micah Hyde, Adam Kay, Garreth O'Connor, Kyle Lafferty, Gifton Noel-Williams.

Second Half

Accrington Stanley: Aaron Ratchford, Peter Cavanagh, Robbie Williams, Ashley Foyle, Leam Richardson, Andy Todd, Ian Craney, Andy Procter, Sean Doherty, Romuald Boco, Neil Smith.

Burnley (4-4-2): Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Stephen Foster, Wayne Thomas, Jon Harley, John Spicer, James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Alan Mahon, Steve Jones, Andy Gray.

Burnley subs (all unused): Jonathan Sergeant, Connor Smith, Ali Akbar.