The search goes on

Last updated : 20 November 2010 By Tony Scholes

Manager Brian Laws has spoken about the need to get this particular monkey off our back; everyone is getting hung up about it, and there is no doubt this first away win really does have to come sooner rather than later.

The most recent results have left us as the only Championship side without a win on the road, and there is no doubt that getting away wins has been proving difficult for Burnley for some time. Since Christmas 2008, yes almost two years ago, we've won just three, at Blackpool, Plymouth and Hull.

I know we've only lost twice this season away but even so It's incredible that we are in the top six with such a record. Our home form has been good, it's happen as well.

I recall a year ago, the previous manager constantly kept telling us that he knew that first away win in the Premier League was close but we kept getting hit for goal after goal. This season, back in the Championship, it really has been close. We've given away two goal leads in games and incredibly we've seen leads disappear in stoppage time twice.

If we can start getting some really positive results away then we really are capable of putting the top two under some real pressure.

Our Opponents


Coventry City are under new management this season. They parted company with former Fulham boss Chris Coleman in the close season after over two years in the job. It looked odds on that Steve Cotterill (then with Notts County) was going to get the job but when he turned it down they quickly moved for Colchester boss Aidy Boothroyd.

We last crossed swords with him when we played Watford in September 2008. By the time we got to Vicarage Road in our promotion season he'd departed and was out of the game until replacing Paul Lambert at Colchester just after the start of last season.

Now he's tasked with turning round Coventry's fortunes and has made a decent start. Like us, they have been in and out of the top six but three consecutive defeats have seen them drop to eleventh. That's certainly no catastrophe in this league and they are only two points behind the Clarets and we currently occupy a top six place.

Three players lead their goalscoring list right now, with four league goals each. They are Ben Turner and summer signings Clive Platt (from Rochdale) and Lucas Jutkiewicz (from Everton).

Winning is all that matters to Boothroyd and with those three defeats we'll need to be on our guard today as they look to arrest that run.

Click HERE to see Coventry's results this season


Team News


Boothroyd will still be without Ben Turner and Sammy Clingan who are both out with knee injuries but he does welcome back two players who return from injury. Wide man David Bell is expected to feature at some stage and Clive Platt is back after missing last week's game.

Bell and Platt will be added to last week's squad which was: Kieren Westwood, Martin Cranie, Richard Keogh, Richard Wood, James McPake, Gary McSheffrey, Carl Baker, Lee Carsley, Michael Doyle, Marlon King, Lucas Jutkiewicz,. Subs: Daniel Ireland, Jordan Clarke, Nathan Cameron, Conor Thomas, Roy O'Donovan, Aron Gunnarsson, Freddy Eastwood.

Click HERE to see the full Coventry squad


Burnley are still without Danny Fox for today's game. The left back misses out on an opportunity to return to the Ricoh with the ankle injury he sustained in the home draw against Doncaster a week last Tuesday.

Fox was still limping badly yesterday but the swelling has gone down and the club will soon know the extent of the damage after a scan.

Martin Paterson has been training this week and could be fit enough to return to the squad and, although Fox misses out, there will be a return for one Coventry old boy in Jack Cork who was on loan there in the first half of last season.

The biggest poser for Brian Laws is whether to include Ross Wallace from the start, but I suspect we might stick with something like the side that started last week.

Burnley could line up: Lee Grant, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Michael Duff, Brian Easton, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Jack Cork, Chris Eagles, Chris Iwelumo, Jay Rodriguez. Subs from: Brian Jensen, David Edgar, Leon Cort, Andre Bikey, Dean Marney, Ross Wallace, Steven Thompson, Martin Paterson.

Last Time We Met


Robbie Blake
Robbie Blake - the night of the Bad Beat Bobs
Our last visit to the Ricoh looked as though it was heading the same way as our first visit there when Mike Thorpe, the same referee in both games, wrongly awarded Coventry a first half penalty to give them a 1-0 lead.

This time the decision went against Coventry born Graham Alexander and it was another poor decision.

But Burnley were back in it just after half time through Michael Duff. A Wade Elliott corner found the head of Steven Caldwell at the near post, and although being fouled he got the ball across to Duff who made no mistake from close range.

Duff enjoyed his moment, winding up the Coventry fans, and we sat back hoping to go on and win this.

It didn't come for some time. We introduced Chris Eagles and Robbie Blake and then, with two minutes to go they combined to give us the lead. Elliott found Eagles whose pass to Blake was inch perfect. Robbie made no mistake and for the first time flashed his Bad Beat Bobs, the red underpants handed to him ahead of the game by Clarke Carlisle.

We weren't finished. The shorts went back up and he returned the favour for Eagles who finished brilliantly from just outside the box.

A 3-1 win and our second away win of the season.

The teams were;

Coventry: Kieren Westwood, Isaac Osbourne, Elliott Ward, Scott Dann, Neil Fox, Michael Mifsud, Michael Doyle (Guilleme Beuzelin 74), Aron Gunnarsson, Jay Tabb (Robbie Simpson 40), Leon Best (Clinton Morrison 66), Freddy Eastwood. Subs not used: Andy Marshall, Marcus Hall.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Christian Kalvenes, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson (Chris Eagles 71), Chris McCann (Robbie Blake 79), Steven Thompson (Jay Rodriguez 84), Martin Paterson. Subs not used: Diego Penny, Remco van der Schaaf.

Previous games against Coventry


Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1999/2000

FAC

a

0-3

22,774

.

2001/02

1

a

2-0

16,849

Taylor Little

..

h

1-0

18,751

Taylor

2002/03

1

h

3-1

13,470

Blake(pen) Grant Davenport(og)

.

.

a

1-0

13,659

Cox

2003/04

1

h

1-2

10,358

Blake

..

a

0-4

12,953

.

2004/05

C

h

2-2

10,919

Blake(pen) Branch

.

.

a

2-0

13,236

Oster Moore

2005/06

C

h

4-0

11,683

G O'Connor Thomas Akinbiyi(2)

..

a

0-1

19,641

.

2006/07

C

a

0-1

18,362

.

.

.

h

1-2

12,830

McVeigh

2007/08

C

a

2-1

17,347

Akinbiyi Blake

..

h

2-0

9,779

McCann Caldwell

2008/09

C

a

3-1

14,621

Duff Blake Eagles

.

.

h

1-1

14,595

Eagles



Click HERE to see all our results against Coventry