The first of the long trips - it's Brighton

It's one of the worst three for us this season in terms of time and distance, along with away games against two of the promoted clubs Bournemouth and Yeovil, which means the first time the alarm clock will get an airing in 2013/14.

This is our third visit to Brighton since they won promotion in 2011, and therefore our third visit to their new stadium at Falmer, the Amex Stadium.

Both previous games have ended 1-0. The first of went our way when Brighton had two players sent off early in the game. A Kieran Trippier goal was thankfully, in the end, enough to win it for us and the players celebrated with their Christmas party in Brighton that night with left back Brian Easton dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

Danny Lafferty wants to keep performing to stay in the team

Last season's trip ended in a 1-0 defeat during what proved to be our most difficult part of the season.

We go there in some good form this time. Having drawn at home to Bolton on the opening day of the season we've followed that up with three wins. We beat York in the cup, then travelled to Hillsborough and came home with all three points against Wednesday and last week recorded our first home victory of the season, beating Yeovil 2-0.

Burnley manager Sean Dyche will be forced into making his first team change of the season tomorrow following the news yesterday that Ross Wallace will be out for around four months with a knee problem, but one player very much hoping to be in the team is Danny Lafferty.

The Northern Ireland international had a stormer for his country against Russia ten days ago. Ben Mee's injury in Cork ensured he started the season in the first team and, despite Mee being back and on the bench for the last two games, he's so far retained it.

Lafferty, speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph this week, said: "As long as I'm playing I'm happy. There's competition here. As much as Ben has had bad luck with injuries it's given me the opportunity to get in there and start the season and I feel like I've turned a corner with that.

"I'm happy that I'm playing and I'll try to keep performing so that I can stay in the team and keep that going personally."

It looks all but certain that one of last week's substitutes, Scott Arfield or Keith Treacy, will get the nod to replace Wallace. Both did really well when they came on against Yeovil and were both a major influence in us going on to win the game.

I'd thought about what the team might be for Brighton earlier in the week and though that maybe Dyche might just stick with the same starting line up. With that now ruled out it looks to be a matter of which one of them comes in and there is certainly merit in selecting either of them.

I don't know who he'll choose but I suspect Arfield is the more likely of the two just now. I don't envisage any more problems and with Michael Duff the only other player ruled out it is likely to be just the one change.

I suspect we'll line up: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Kevin Long, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, Junior Stanislas, Dean Marney, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs: Alex Cisak, Luke O'Neill, David Edgar, Ben Mee, Brian Stock, Keith Treacy, Ryan Noble.

Brighton's world turned upside down in May. Despite being favourites they crashed to fierce rivals Crystal Palace in the play-off semi-finals. The Palace dressing room had been sabotaged ahead of the game. Manager Gus Poyet was livid but he soon had more to worry about when he was suspended by the club.

Eventually he was sacked. I don't believe any reason was ever made public but some suggestions have been that the club were upset that Poyet was allegedly touting himself for Premier League jobs.

They've replaced him with Spaniard Oscar Garcia who arrived after a successful season in charge of Maccabi Tel Aviv.

They haven't been overactive in the transfer market during the summer. Matthew Upson joined on a permanent basis after ending last season on loan and they acquired Swansea's Kemy Agustien before the start of the season.

Garcia has added to his squad since the big kick off with both Keith Andrews and Stephen Ward arriving on season long loans from the Wanderers of Bolton and Wolverhampton.

Both of the first two league games were lost, both 2-1 with Jose Ulloa scoring Brighton's goal on each occasion. The first of them was at Leeds and then at home against Derby. Reports suggested they were unfortunate not to get anything in both games.

They even suffered a shock 3-1 home defeat in the COCUP against league newcomers Newport, a game that saw Inigo Calderon sent off for a challenge that left Newport's Byron Anthony with a broken leg.

However, they appealed the red card, issued by referee Brendan Malone, and won it which means Calderon did not receive a suspension and will be available tomorrow.

They go into that game after finally getting their first win of the season when an Andrew Crofts goal gave them a 1-0 win at Birmingham last Saturday.

Ashley Barnes suffered a hip injury after coming off the bench but is expected to be fit. With Craig Mackail-Smith and Will Hoskins still expected to be out they could field the same team as played in that Birmingham win.

That team was: Tomasz Kuszczak, Gordon Greer, Inigo Calderon, Stephen Ward, Matthew Upson, Keith Andrews, Andrew Crofts, Kemy Agustien, Jose Ulloa, David Lopez, Will Buckley. Subs: Casper Ankergren, Adam El-Abd, Vitalijs Maksimenko, Jake Forster-Caskey, Kazenga Lua Lua, Rohan Ince, Ashley Barnes.

Last Time We Were There

Our trip to Brighton last season came during our worst run of the season. Having gone seventh in the league with a win at Millwall in January we'd been on a run of games since that had seen us win just two points out of fifteen.

It was a run that had seen us drop towards the bottom half of the table and just four days before the game had turned in one of the most abject performances of the season against Huddersfield.

Good performance from Kevin Long

It turned into another defeat but at least this was a much better performance against a team brimming with confidence.

After a bright enough start it was Brighton who soon took control and it was during this period of ascendancy that they scored the only goal of the game. It came, predictably on the day, down their left with Wayne Bridge crossing. Andrea Orlandi flicked it on for David Lopez to score.

We came back at them and Jason Shackell was twice unfortunate not to score from Keith Treacy crosses. The first was cleared off the line but the second drew a brilliant save from Tomasz Kuszczak.

Brighton came back at us and we were probably the happier of the two sides when the half time whistle blew with the score still 1-0.

We played well in the first twenty minutes of the second half but couldn't force an equaliser and forced Gus Poyet into making changes. But we were the team going forward and Lee Grant was almost unemployed in front of the Burnley fans.

Perhaps we didn't threaten an equaliser as often as we might have done but at least, despite the defeat, this was a better performance with the performances of our two young defenders Kevin Long a real plus.

The teams were;

Brighton: Tomasz Kuszczak, Bruno Santor, Matthew Upson, Adam El-Abd, Wayne Bridge, Dean Hammond, Gary Dicker, David Lopez, Andrea Orlandi (Ashley Barnes 63), Leonardo Ulloa (Craig Mackail-Smith 63), Rodriguez Vicente (Gordon Greer 88). Subs not used: Casper Ankergren, Inigo Calderon, Kazenga Lua Lua, Jake Forster-Caskey.

Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Kevin Long, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, Brian Stock (Sam Vokes 80), Junior Stanislas (Danny Ings 45), Dean Marney (Marvin Bartley 71), Chris McCann, Keith Treacy, Charlie Austin. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Luke O'Neill, David Edgar, Martin Paterson.

Previous Games against Brighton

Click HERE to see all previous results against Brighton