There's a franchise in town

We go into tonight's game in fifth place in the league but, as I wrote in my report of Saturday's win, league placings are right now almost meaningless although it is better to be up there in that top six than in the bottom half of the table.

Ross Wallace expects us to be up there challenging

It's signalled something of a change of opinion with some supporters. There seemed to be some concern with some when the first two games were drawn, made worse by them sandwiching a Capital One Cup exit at Port Vale.

And that concern was beginning to turn to panic after the defeat at Ipswich when I thought we'd actually played better than in any of the previous three games.

Since returning home from Portman Road, we've won three out of three, but that doesn't mean everything is perfect, far from it. It took a header from a corner to beat boring Brentford and two similar goals turned things our way at Bristol City after they'd dominated the opening part of the game.

Then came Sheffield Wednesday. It's received a mixed reaction but I remain certain that we fully deserved those points. For all their possession at times, Wednesday did little with it in terms of creating opportunities.

One player in the opposition knew exactly what to expect. Ross Wallace had been with us for five years and over two and a half years with Sean Dyche as manager. After being on the losing side against us, he said: "I think they'll be up there again, with the manager and staff they will drive the team on.

"The good thing is they've still got the nucleus of the team. I know they lost Ingsy and Tripps but I think they bought well. They were how they've been for years, hard to break down and it's hard to create clear cut chances against them."

He enjoyed his return, other than the result. He joked: I was expecting a few kicks but I didn't get any. I had Ben (Mee) in my back pocket. I had a nice time here, it was just time to move on. I wish Burnley all the best."

Wallace says we bought well in replacing Trippier and Ings. Tendayi Darikwa has come in from Chesterfield and played right-back, winning his place because of Matt Lowton's injury. But Lowton was back in the squad on Saturday, providing Darikwa with some real competition for the first time.

Darikwa responded by turning n a man of the match performance and he's said: "The pressure is on me at the moment to keep the shirt. Matty's more or less fully fit now and it's going to be an interesting competition throughout the season.

Tendayi Darikwa is looking forward to the competition

"It's competition that I relish. I'm here to play games and obviously I know I've got to be on top of my game for that to happen. I believe it's good to have competition for places at football clubs, I think it brings the best out of players."

It would be a massive surprise if Darikwa did lose his place tonight, certainly after Saturday's performance, but there is competition for places about to come up in the near future, even in midfield where we could soon have three other options.

New signing Joey Barton is getting closer and has played for the development squad today, scoring his first Burnley goal, and we've got both Dean Marney and Fredrik Ulvestad on the way back from injuries.

But, as for tonight, it would be no surprise to see Dyche name the side that has won each of the last two games against Bristol City and Sheffield Wednesday.

If so, the team will be: Tom Heaton, Tendayi Darikwa, Michael Duff, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Scott Arfield, David Jones, Michael Kightly, Sam Vokes, Andre Gray. Subs: Matt Gilks, Matt Lowton, Tom Anderson, Stephen Ward, Matt Taylor, Rouwen Hennings, Chris Long.

Nothing will ever change my mind on tonight's opponents who will be playing a Turf Moor league game for the first time. They came into existence when they bought their place in the league, replacing Wimbledon; this after failed attempts to lure both Luton and QPR to Milton Keynes.

It is unprecedented in modern day football but finally they did show some good grace in handing over the honours and trophies won by Wimbledon to the correct club although they do still continue to use the word Dons at the end of their name, a word I'm more than happy to replace with the word Franchise.

It was so very, very wrong to allow it to happen. I was outspoken on it at the time and nothing has changed to alter my view, but it was allowed and after winning promotion we are due to play a side for this first time in the league although we have twice met them in cup competitions.

The FA Cup win there in January 2010 will always be remembered for our manager failing to speak to the media after the game because he was supposedly rushing off to see family in Scotland.

The Carling Cup win came two seasons later at the Turf when we came from behind to win by the same 2-1 scoreline with goals from defenders Kieran Trippier, his first at Turf Moor, and Andre Bikey, his last for the club.

Since winning promotion as runners-up last season, they got off to a winning start with a big 4-1 win at Rotherham. They've since drawn 0-0 at Reading and lost 2-0 at Middlesbrough on the road whilst at home they lost to Preston, beat Bolton and then lost against Birmingham.

They held Middlesbrough for seventy minutes at the Riverside on Saturday but went behind to a Stewart Downing wonder goal and then suffered, as Burnley have so often, when David Nugent scored.

They could be without Ben Reeves who has a hamstring injury and all of Joe Walsh, Dale Jennings, Darren Potter, Cody Cropper and our former loan player Mark Randall who all have knee problems.

None of them are new injuries, they were all out of the game at Middlesbrough.

Randall might be out of the reckoning but they will include one former Burnley loan player. Dean Bowditch was with us on loan from Ipswich in the 2004/05 season. He scored one goal in ten appearances for us, that coming in a 3-1 home win against Watford.

Karl Robinson has suggested there are a couple of minor injuries from that game that are likely to clear up so it could also be same again for them.

They could line up: David Martin, Jordan Spence, Anthony Kay, Kyle McFadzean, Dean Lewington, Samir Carruthers, Diego Poyet, Josh Murphy, Dean Bowditch, Daniel Powell, Sam Gallagher. Subs: Charlie Burns, Lee Hodson, Matthew Upson, Sergio Aguza, Rob Hall, Simon Church.

Previous Games against MK Franchise