The Arabs are on their way

Billy Dodds

It is no the first time we have played Dundee United but we have to go back almost fifty years to the last meeting, that coming in a friendly at Tannadice in 1954. The Clarets were 4-0 winners on that occasion.

It will be a special day tomorrow for new manager Steve Cotterill who will be in charge of his first ever Burnley game at Turf Moor. Previous visits with the opposition proved unsuccessful. He was in the Bournemouth side that lost 4-0 at Burnley in 1993/94 with goals from David Eyres, Tony Philliskirk, Warren Joyce and Steve Davis.

Then almost two years ago he watched Arthur Gnohere and Dimitri Papadopoulos give the Clarets a 2-1 win against the Stoke side he was managing.

There’ll be some unfamiliar faces in the Dundee United team but some familiar names including former Bolton striker Owen Coyle, a former Burnley target in Derek McInnes who at the time opted for West Brom and Jim McIntyre who had a spell at Reading.

Perhaps the best known of all the visiting players is Billy Dodds who at 35 is now the club’s player/coach. He is in his second spell with the club and has played well approaching 600 games in his career and has past the 200 goals scored.

Of all the clubs he has played for he made most appearances for his current club’s fiercest rivals, fellow inhabitants of Tannadice Street Dundee.

This is Dundee United’s second match in the area, they were beaten 2-0 by Bolton on Wednesday at the Lancashire Football Association Ground at Leyland. The Bolton goals were scored by Kevin Nolan and Kevin Davies.

Manager Ian McCall named the following team which played in a 4-4-2 formation:

Tony Bullock, Mark Wilson (Steven Bell), Chris Innes, David McCracken, Alan Archibald, Mark Kerr, Derek McInnes, Billy Dodds (Colin Samuel), Barry Robson (Stephen O’Donnell), Andy McLaren (Graeme Holmes), Jim McIntyre (Aaron Conway).

Steve Cotterill is expected to include three trialists and new signing Michael Duff who wasn’t ready to play at Accrington last week and they will be added to the players who started last week. It looks as though some of the lads from the youth team will be sitting this one out.

It’s a big day for Robbie Blake who will captain the Clarets for the first time having been appointed club captain this week.

Cotterill has to make one change from the starting eleven from last Saturday with trialist Michael Taylor having left the club.

He will choose from: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, Michael Duff, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Matt O’Neill, Richard Chaplow, Tony Grant, Graham Branch, Robbie Blake, Ian Moore, Joel Pilkington, Paul Scott, Dave Walton, Cyril Eboki Poh, Lionel Djebi Zadi.