This difficult run continues at Southampton

We beat Southampton at the Turf back at the beginning of November, Ashley Barnes scoring a second half goal at the Jimmy Mac End to give us a 1-0 win.

But it is a long time since we travelled down to Southampton for a top flight game. When we were in the Premier League five years ago they were playing their football in League One so we have to go back all the way to November 1973 when goals from Paul Fletcher and Ray Hankin earned us a point in a 2-2 draw at The Dell on my first ever visit there.

Ahead of that game we were behind Everton in third place in the First Division and Southampton were not much further behind in eighth place, but it was the Saints who went on to have the difficult season, eventually going down with Man United and Norwich.

This time it is us looking for points to keep away from the bottom three with them looking to push for a place in Europe but, as was the case last time, away wins in this league have been difficult to come by.

We beat Stoke 2-1 at the Britannia but that remains our only success on the road and we are currently on a run of eight away games without a win, a run that has won only three points.

Sam Vokes is hoping to take the confidence from last week into the game

But the record doesn't do justice to some of the performances. We might have got something from three of the five defeats. We were better than both QPR and Man United on the day and might have got something at Spurs in the week before Christmas.

The only occasions where you had to admit we deserved nothing were those at Sunderland, when we were really poor, and Liverpool where, as much as anything else, they were just too good for us on the day.

If we are to survive this season then I think we are going to need a few more points on the road, particularly given that three of our last four games are away from home. Before those three there's Southampton and Everton and we have to go to St. Mary's knowing we are capable of getting a result.

We will be taking a collection of strikers down with us who have connections with our opponents. Danny Ings, Lukas Jutkiewicz and Sam Vokes were all at the Southampton academy at one time or other.

None of them made it there both Ings and Vokes joining Bournemouth  and Jutkiewicz signing for Swindon.

Ings is a certain starter although it is highly unlikely Jutkiewicz will given he hasn't started a game since the home defeat against Everton in October.

Vokes must have wondered whether his chance would come as he made his way back from cruciate ligament surgery but just last Saturday got his first Premier League start and is now very much in contention for another appearance at St. Mary's after both he and Ings scored there last season in the FA Cup.

Vokes said: "It's a club I supported as a child, so it's a fixture I always look forward to. There are a couple of lads here who are from the same area as myself too, and we went back down there last year and put in a good performance in the FA Cup as well.

"They've been brilliant this season and it's going to be a tough test for us. I think at the start of the season a lot of people wrote them off given the players they lost, but they've brought some strong players in and they're now looking at that top end of the table."

He added: "We have been written off from the start as well, but it's a good thing, I suppose, having that underdog attitude going into games. Hopefully we can now take confidence from last week into this weekend."

There are no guarantees with Vokes still working his way back to full match fitness but I'd expect him to start tomorrow, probably in an unchanged team.

Matt Taylor is edging closer but Sean Dyche confirmed yesterday that he would probably need another development squad game before being considered.

Stephen Ward has missed some training this week but he was expected to be fit to travel.

We could line up: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Scott Arfield, David Jones, Ashley Barnes, Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs: Matt Gilks, Steven Reid, Michael Keane, Stephen Ward, Ross Wallace, Michael Kightly, Lukas Jutkiewicz.

Sam might be back for Burnley but Jay Rodriguez, who suffered the same injury a week later, is still to play any football and it is looking more and more likely that he's going miss the entire season.

Without him, and without a whole number of players who departed last summer, they are having a season beyond anyone's expectations. Luke Shaw went to Manchester United and Calum Chambers moved to Arsenal. Added to that, Liverpool were making things look like a fire sale when they captured the signatures of Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren. With all this going on, Spurs jumped in and took manager Mauricio Pochettino.

Incredibly, things have actually improved under new boss Ronald Koeman. They've made some astute signings such as Graziano Pelle, Sadio Mane, Dusan Tadic and Celtic goalkeeper Fraser Forster who Brian Laws tried to get for Burnley from Newcastle in 2010.

They'd finished last season in eighth place with 56 points and that's a total they should pass this time having already reached 50 points with nine games remaining.

Defensively they are the best team in the league. They've conceded just 21 goals all season in the Premier League. However, the 40 goals they have scored is the lowest in the top seven in the league although all of the 13 clubs below that top group have scored less.

They've scored 25 times in their 15 home games but that total has been boosted by the 8-0 win over Sunderland in October with three of those being registered as own goals.

Pelle is their leading goalscorer with eight league goals although the last of those goals was in their 3-0 win against Everton on the Saturday before Christmas but they can boast twelve different goalscorers this season.

Koeman has a fully fit squad to select from, other than Jay Rod, and he's expected to select a similar team to that which drew at Chelsea last week.

On that occasion they lined up: Fraser Forster, Nathaniel Clyne, Jose Fonte, Toby Alderweireld, Ryan Bertrand, Victor Wanyama, Morgan Schneiderlin, Steven Davis, Sadio Mane, Dusan Tadic, Shane Long. Subs: Kelvin Davis, Maya Yoshida, Florin Gardos, Matt Targett, James Ward-Prowse, Filip Djuricic, Shane Long.

Last Time We Were There

I don't really want to remember too much of our last league visit to Southampton. Despite having won five of the previous six away games, the only defeat harshly coming at Leeds, this was not a performance to match and we were very much second best to the home side throughout the game.

What I do recall was it being unbelievably cold and also I recall a Burnley fan telling me he'd bumped into someone outside the ground who had told him he'd played for Burnley. "What was he called?" I asked, the other Burnley fan said: "Brian O'Neil but I've never heard of him."

Lee Grant kept the score down

I think we caught Southampton on a good day; their fans seemed to think so as we made our way out after the final whistle, but this was a pretty inept performance from the Clarets .

It didn't take long for the Saints to march into the lead, just under eight minutes. The hugely impressive Guly Do Prado started the move. He got the ball to Frazer Richardson who was allowed to cross the ball too easily. But there was worse to come when David Edgar just stood off Adam Lallana for him to score.

Within a minute it could have been two, but if we had one player on form it was Lee Grant and he pulled off the first of a number of fine saves that helped keep the score down.

It was one way traffic and just past the half hour they were two up through home debutant Billy Sharp. Again it was poor from Edgar who for no obvious reason went and wandered out of position and that was all the invitation they needed. Sharp wasn't sure whether he got a touch or whether it went in off Ben Mee but it was credited to the home player and with two thirds of the game remaining it was all over for us.

We did get a little bit more of the play in the early part of the second half but without making any inroads. Southampton were soon back on top but they were settling for the 2-0 win.

They did look a good side although certainly very direct with Richardson and his full back partner Danny Fox utilised heavily.

Southampton were in second place just a point behind leaders West Ham; we'd dropped to 11th in the table and with a disappointing run of form to come.

The teams were;

Southampton: Kelvin Davis, Frazer Richardson, Jose Fonte, Jos Hooiveld, Danny Fox, Guly Do Prado (Dean Hammond 78), Morgan Schneiderlin, Jack Cork, Adam Lallana, Billy Sharp (David Connolly 64), Rickie Lambert (Tadanari Lee 90+2). Subs not used: Aaron Martin, Jason Puncheon. 

Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Ben Mee (Zavon Hines 74), Ross Wallace, Dean Marney (Marvin Bartley 45), Chris McCann, Keith Treacy (Josh McQuoid 45), Charlie Austin, Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Brian Easton.

Previous Games against Southampton

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