We're home at last

Last updated : 02 August 2008 By Tony Scholes
Chris Eagles
Chris Eagles - set for his Burnley debut
Quite often in the last few years we've played a Premier League team at home in the build up to the new season. This year there were strong hints that it was going to be a very big name in football, and although they might not be giants there's no doubting that our opponents do have a big name.

It might not be a big game but it has certainly generated more interest in Burnley than it has up in Inverness where there has been no mention of the game, or the Clarets, on their web site.

Caley, like Burnley, are coming to the end of their pre-season campaign ahead of their opening and they too have played eight games with four wins, three draws and just one defeat against Ross County.

Their last three games were on tour in Denmark and all of them ended in draws against Lollandfalster (1-1), Nordsjaelland (1-1) and Herfolge (4-4). Rory McAllister hit a hat trick in the last of those games, having only come on as a sub ten minutes into the second half, and he the one to keep an eye on. This was his second hat trick of pre-season after previously scoring four in a 7-0 win against Brora Rangers.

Adam Rooney scored in two of those games, he's on loan from Stoke and has played against the Clarets. He came on as a sub for Stoke in our 1-0 win at the Windy City in 2006/07 season, replacing Luke Chadwick.

And one member of the Caley squad has played at Turf Moor. In what was the first ever Turf Moor game under Steve Cotterill's management Lionel Djebi-Zadi came on as a sub for another trialist Dave Walton against Dundee United. Djebi-Zadi signed from German club SC Verl this summer. He's played in Scotland before having had a season long loan at Ross County in 2005/06.

In that last game in Denmark they lined up: Fraser, Proctor, McGuire (Duff), Hastings, Djebi-Zadi, Cowie (Wilson), Duncan (Gillespie 45), Black (McBain 45), Imrie (Vigurs), Barrowman (Wood), Rooney (McAllister).

Since that Cardiff game we've played our final league game at Crystal Palace and also eight pre-season friendlies away from Turf Moor, and today the home fans will be hoping to get a look at most of the new signings.

Two of them have played at the Turf previously, Martin Paterson for Scunthorpe and Chris Eagles for both Watford and Sheffield Wednesday, but the other four still await their Turf Moor debuts.

For Eagles, who looks certain to start, it will be his first game in Burnley colours after signing just four days ago, and with possibly six new players in the team it is going to be a very much new look Burnley although only two of the sixteen from that Cardiff game (James O'Connor and Andrew Cole) are no longer with the club.

The least likely of the new boys to play is Kevin McDonald. He's missed all of the last four games with a foot injury and his midfield partner Chris McCann has also been struggling with an injury.

There's a possibility that Aleksandrs Solovjovs could be in the side this afternoon after his stay at Burnley was extended. I'm not so sure that's possible, I was under the impression there were rules preventing him playing more than two games, the rule that brought a sudden halt to Owen Coyle's reserve team appearances last season. We'll see in a few hours.

Will today's line up however give us any clues as to how Owen Coyle might start next Saturday? I think so, I'm sure he'll get as close to that as he can for this final friendly.

He'll select from: Diego Penny, Graham Alexander, Christian Kalvenes, Michael Duff, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Kevin McDonald, Joey Gudjonsson, Ade Akinbiyi, Martin Paterson, Wade Elliott, Brian Jensen, Steve Jones, Chris McCann, Gabor Kiraly, Alan Mahon, Jay Rodriguez, Robbie Blake, Bes Berisha, Stephen Jordan, Adam Kay, Remco van der Schaaf, Alex MacDonald, Chris Eagles and Aleksandrs Solovjovs.