The window has closed and it's back to the football

It's been a difficult week for us. I'm sure most of us had built up our hopes that there would be some new recruits last Monday, but once we'd left it to the last minute with previously agreed deals called off, it left us chasing around for other players with nothing materialising.

That's something that we've all got to put behind us now as we go into the last 15 games of the season looking for the points that will give us another season in the Premier League, and we couldn't have better opponents than West Brom who inflicted on us our biggest defeat so far.

The 4-0 loss at the Hawthorns back in September was difficult to take and it's a game that Sean Dyche remembers well.

"I think it was a massive learning curve for us. We had four players who have been very important for a long time for this football club missing that day. It's not an excuse, but it is a reality.

"If you look across any level of football and any manager had four players who had played a lot of football for their club and had been important to them, it affects you.

Ben Mee is looking for us to get back to what we do best

"Beyond that, it was a massive learning curve for us. We knew it anyway, but that was really the first time when we became acutely aware that if you're not right on top of your performance level as an individual and as a team, you can get hurt at this level, and especially when it hits you like that.

"I think we've moved on a long way since then though. As I suggest, we use each experience to learn and develop the group further and I think there's been a real, good learning curve since. We've had a couple of knocks recently, important games, and as I keep saying, there are no guarantees.

"We delivered reasonable performances, but we didn't get the points and the wins. Now we have to make sure we continue to win games and get points where we can, beginning against West Brom on Sunday."

Dyche has a positive squad of players behind him and this week Ben Mee, who won his place back at left back when Stephen Ward suffered his injury against Aston Villa, said: We were all disappointed with last week when the performance wasn't up to our usual standards. You can't be too down on it though and equally you can't get too high when you've done the job.

"We worked so hard last year to get us to the position we are in now and we're enjoying it. We're here to play against the best teams in the country and some of the best teams in the world. We have done a good job of it so far and we're all looking forward to what should be an exciting run in.

"It's one step at a time and we're always looking ahead. We know they're (West Brom) going to come here very well organised, but all the lads will be buzzing for it. The crowd will get behind us and push us on and hopefully we can go back to what we do best and get the three points on Sunday."

Ward and Matt Taylor are edging closer to fitness but neither will be ready for the weekend. Dyche said: "Stephen Ward is making good progress. He is back training with the first team, but he hasn't had a game yet."

It does look as though Matt Taylor has suffered a setback. Last week he was close to playing a behind closed doors game but of him, Dyche said: "Matty Taylor is still inching along really and we'll make sure that we get that sorted and looked at again, so that he can make a full recovery."

The club have also confirmed that both Kevin Long and Cameron Dummigan are long term absentees although there has not been any previous information on Dummigan other than the fact he hasn't been playing in any of the development squad games.

That means, virtually, we will be selecting from the same squad that was on duty at Sunderland. George Boyd and Danny Ings were both pulled off in that game just before the hour but I'd be surprised if either of them are not in the starting line up tomorrow, provided both are fit.

Could it be the same team again, if so it will be: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Keane, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Dean Marney, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Luke O'Neill, Steven Reid, Michael Duff, Danny Lafferty, Ross Wallace, Michael Kightly, Sam Vokes, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Marvin Sordell.

West Brom will be making their first visit to the Turf for just over six years, the last being the FA Cup replay against them on 3rd February 2009 when Wade Elliott got our opener and Steven Thompson added two second half goals to give us a 3-1 win.

Their last league visit, which will be covered below, was on the opening day of the 2007/08 season, but we have to go back to 5th December 1970 for the last time the teams clashed here in the top flight.

On that occasion, struggling Burnley got a point from a 1-1 draw. Steve Kindon gave us the lead early in the second half but Tony Brown, who played 574 league games for West Brom, went on to equalise.

There have been a number of changes at the Hawthorns over the last couple of years. Steve Clarke led them to 8th place in the 2012/13 season but he's one of three managers (or head coaches as they like to call them) to have lost his job since.

He was replaced with Pepe Mel during last season but they were hanging on and finished in the bottom safe position of 17th. That saw Mel go with Alan Irvine taking over in what was one of the biggest shocks of the summer.

He wasn't given long either. He was sacked on 30th December after receiving some shocking abuse from Baggies' fans during a defeat at Stoke. He was popular with the players but the fans reacted to him in much the same way as Bolton's did to the appointment of Gary Megson in 2007 and the Burnley fans did when Brian Laws was appointed in 2010.

Tim Sherwood looked the favourite initially (he often does when jobs become vacant) but West Brom moved very quickly to appoint Tony Pulis on New Year's Day. Things picked up immediately; they've beaten Gateshead and Birmingham to reach the 5th round of the FA Cup and in the league they beat Hull at home, drew at Everton but then lost 3-0 a week ago at home to Spurs.

They are currently 15th in the table with 22 points, that's two points more than us and three places higher with us having dropped back into the bottom three today following Hull's draw at the Etihad.

They were just a touch more successful than us on Monday. They were trying to bring in four or five players, but that was no surprise, Pulis has often been one of the busier managers on deadline day at his previous clubs. The reality was that only Darren Fletcher arrived from Man United having previously turned down West Ham. He was added to their previous signing of Wigan's Callum McManaman.

They've won twice away from home this season, at Spurs and Leicester, and both by 1-0 scorelines. That can be added to three home wins; they've added 1-0 victories against Aston Villa and the Hull win previously mentioned to the 4-0 win against us.

They are sure to make at least one change from last week; I cannot see him not starting with Fletcher. Last week he played Joleon Lescott at left back in his favoured 4-4-2 system whilst employing Gareth McAuley and our summer target Craig Dawson in the centre whilst recent target Graham Dorrans and former Claret Chris Baird were both on the bench.

If he goes with a similar system tomorrow then they could line up: Ben Foster, Andre Wisdom, Gareth McAuley, Craig Dawson, Joleon Lescott, Callum McManaman, Darren Fletcher, Claudio Yacob, Chris Brunt, Victor Anichebe, Saido Berahino. Subs from: Boaz Myhill, Sebastien Pocognoli, Chris Baird, James Morrison, Graham Dorrans, Craig Gardner, Stephane Sessegnon, Brown Ideye.

Last Time They Were Here

I think the last team you want to face on the opening day of the season are the bookies favourites for promotion, but that's exactly how we started the 2007/08 season, against a West Brom team that went on to win the league under Tony Mowbray.

Andy Gray scored the winner

Steve Cotterill named three new signings in his team for this game at Turf Moor. Gabor Kiraly was in goal, Stephen Jordan at left back and the returning Robbie Blake was partnered with Andy Gray up front; Blake's first debut had also been against West Brom.

Joey Gudjonsson had won a place after an outstanding performance in the last pre-season game and fit again Wayne Thomas was restored although this was to be his last game for Burnley with Cotterill doing the deal of the century days later in getting Southampton to play £1.2 million for him.

Kevin Phillips was in the West Brom team, alongside former Claret Richard Chaplow, so we probably knew we'd have to score twice to win it, and so it proved.

The opener on 18 minutes came from our corner. It was cleared to Zoltan Gera who quickly found Phillips who turned inside Michael Duff and placed his shot into the corner of the net with Kiraly helpless.

We still trailed by that goal at the interval but we were soon level in the second half when Duff headed home a Blake corner just two minutes in.

West Brom had deserved their interval lead, particularly after we'd had to reshuffle when Steven Caldwell was forced off injured, but this was a different Burnley in the second half.

But the trump card was played with 17 minutes remaining with the introduction of Ade Akinbiyi. West Brom couldn't cope with either his pace or his power. He almost set up once chance, then he missed a sitter, and then he had Neil Clement so confused the West Brom defender handled the ball for a clear penalty.

Gray converted it and the game was won. Kyle Lafferty, who had one of his most impressive games after coming on as a substitute, almost got a third as we saw the game out comfortably.

The teams were;

Burnley: Gabor Kiraly, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, Steven Caldwell (Kyle Lafferty 31), Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, Chris McCann, Jon Harley, Robbie Blake (Ade Akinbiyi 73), Andy Gray. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, James O'Connor, John Spicer.

West Brom: Dean Kiely, Carl Hoefkens, Leon Barnett, Neil Clement, Tininho, Richard Chaplow (Pele 70), Zoltan Gera, Jonathan Greening, Filipe Teixeira (James Morrison 64), Craig Beattie (Nathan Ellington 70), Kevin Phillips. Subs not used: Luke Steele, Martin Albrechtsen.

Previous Games against West Brom

Click HERE to see all previous results against West Brom