We're off to Stoke - it's Marvellous

A trip to Stoke has, at times, in recent years been a somewhat bruising affair but this time it is going to be a Marvellous visit.

Marvellous - and I make no apologies for making reference to the recent BBC film about former Stoke kit man Neil Baldwin. When I first watched it I wondered just how much of it was true. Was this bloke really the kit manager?" Yes he was", Vince Overson told me, one of the players at Stoke at the time, and I even found out that the player with the £60 underwear was former striker Martin Carruthers.

Stoke have had a reputation for being a dour club in a lot of ways in recent years. This film and the subsequent publicity for 'Nello' has certainly shown them in a good light and I'll be looking forward to going to tomorrow's game. Who knows? I might even meet Neil. By tomorrow night he could be telling people I'm a very good friend of his.

He always wanted to be happy, so he decided to be, and I'm looking forward to my trip tomorrow, happy in the knowledge that my club Burnley has finally won a game this season.

It has been difficult to take in. Wins weren't that difficult to come by last season. There were 26 of them in total and the longest run we had without one was five games during November so perhaps November was the right time for us to get our first win this season.

It's been disappointing that we've had to wait two weeks to get out on the pitch again. The whole place was lifted by that win against Hull and I'm sure we just wanted to get out there and play again.

One win by the 21st November and yet that one win has taken us right behind the three clubs just ahead of us. People were starting to write us off, not just the pundits but some fans, but we are not adrift, far from it, and just imagine had we scored that penalty at Palace; we'd only be in the bottom three on goal difference.

Ashley Barnes ready to go hard and see where it takes us

I know every other club can find a hard luck story, one where it didn't just go for you, but that win has lifted so many of us now and left us with glasses more than half full.

Sean Dyche said this week: "One win isn't like we've won the World Cup, one win is laying a marker down and now we're looking to move it forward. That's all we were looking for, that first marker to say we're in the Premier League and we're in here for a reason."

Ashley Barnes, scorer of that winning goal against Hull, said ahead of this game: "We know it is going to be tough but we have to go there with our own game plan and know the way we are going to play and take that to them.

"Every game is tough in this league, we know that. They've been in this league quite a while now and we know it is going to be tough. But we'll go again on Saturday; well go hard and we will see where it takes us."

Barnes got only his second start of the season against Hull, the first having come in the draw at Leicester. His goal in the Hull win was his first ever in the Premier League and his fourth for Burnley since joining us in January of this year.

He'll be hoping to get another start at the Britannia Stadium and I think he will. He's come in for some criticism from supporters this season but I thought he played really well in that win and I'd be surprised if there was any change up front.

There's been a doubt about Scott Arfield and Nathaniel Chalobah, who picked up an injury on England under-21 duty. Both are expected to be fit which could leave us with a fully fit squad to select from with the exception of Sam Vokes and Matt Taylor the two long term injury victims.

It would be no surprise if Dyche opted to go with the same team and if so we'll line up: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Stephen Ward, Scott Arfield, Dean Marney, David Jones, George Boyd, Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, Nathaniel Chalobah, Ross Wallace, Michael Kightly, Marvin Sordell, Lukas Jutkiewicz.

The last time we went to Stoke for a Championship game was in March 2008. We were done by referee Howard Webb who awarded a ludicrous penalty in stoppage time that Liam Lawrence took, hit against the post only for it to rebound back of the recalled Gabor Kiraly and into the net.

It earned Stoke an undeserved point in a 1-1 draw after Kyle Lafferty had scored an early goal for us. We were in mid-table, but Stoke were in second place behind Bristol City and were on their way to the Premier League and a first season in top flight football since 1985.

Personally, I thought they were going to be one season wonders and would be back in the Championship a year later. They've certainly proved me wrong. They are still in the Premier League, now in their seventh successive season. They've never finished lower than 14th and the least number of points gained in any of those six previous seasons was 42 in 2012/13.

After the first five of those seasons they decided on a change of manager. Tony Pulis had taken them up and kept them up for all of those five years but they replaced him with Mark Hughes and in his first season took them to the fifty points total for the first time.

Stoke are now very much an established Premier League club and only eight other clubs have now had a longer unbroken run in this league.

They are currently in 9th place having won 15 points from their 11 games. They've won four and lost four. At home their two wins have come against Newcastle and Swansea, they've drawn against West Ham but have surprisingly been beaten by both Aston Villa and Leicester at the Britannia, this from a side that has recorded away wins at Man City and Spurs.

They've scored 12 Premier League goals this season with Mame Biram Diouf their leading scorer with three. Diouf has already scored against us. He netted the third in Man United's Old Trafford win against us in 2009/10.

Stoke, who last time out picked up those three points at White Hart Lane, have had injury problems in the build up to this game. Today Hughes said he thought both Phil Bardsley, who made his Burnley debut at Stoke in 2006, and Erik Pieters should be available. He was less confident about Marc Wilson but thought Glenn Whelan, once a Burnley target, could be ready to come back into the team. Stoke are also without defenders Robert Huth and Dion Teixera. 

The suggestions in the Potteries is that they could line up: Asmir Begovic, Phil Bardsley, Ryan Shawcross, Geoff Cameron, Erik Pieters, Steven Nzonzi, Steve Sidwell, Jonathan Walters, Krkic Bozan, Victor Moses, Mame Biram Diouf. Subs: Thomas Sorensen, Marc Muniesa, Stephen Ireland, Glenn Whelan, Marko Arnautovic, Charlie Adam, Peter Crouch.

Last Time We Were There

August 2009. Burnley were in the Premier League and the season was ready to start. For our first game they had sent us to Stoke. It came just 62 days after the brilliant day out at Wembley but we couldn't replicate the result and fell to a 2-0 defeat, the goals coming from Ryan Shawcross and a Stephen Jordan own goal.

Burnley fans were there in big numbers for the historic occasion and there was a relaxed atmosphere outside and inside the ground ahead of kick off. The tension of the play-offs was gone and we were ready to claim our prize.

Captain Steven Caldwell was ruled out having suffered an injury on his return to Scotland duty. We didn't have a replacement at centre-half with Michael Duff also out and that meant Jordan had to partner Clarke Carlisle with Christian Kalvenes coming in at left-back.

Tyrone Mears, one of two new signings

Owen Coyle's team featured two new signings in Tyrone Mears and Steven Fletcher with another two, Fernando Guerrero (about to be fouled more than any other player) and Richard Eckersley on the bench. Surprisingly there was no place for Jay Rodriguez in the squad. He, along with new signing Brian Easton, didn't make the 18 with another new signing David Edgar suspended following a red card playing for Newcastle at Villa at the end of the previous season.

We were playing well enough but against this Stoke team you really had to be on your guard, particularly against conceding free kicks and even throw ins. It was so difficult to deal with and it proved to be our downfall.

Stoke didn't win a free kick until the 19th minute but it proved fatal. It came in from the left and Ryan Shawcross was able to head home. Fourteen minutes later they scored again. This time it was from a long throw with Jordan unable to do anything other than head it past Brian Jensen into his own goal.

We probably deserved to be behind at half time but it was much improved after the break. We got some tempo back into our game and started to look like the team that had won promotion. But the closest we were to a goal in the second half was when Stoke substitute Dave Kitson hit the bar. A third would have been unjust.

We hadn't got our first Premier League point; we hadn't even got our first Premier League goal. We didn't have long to wait.

The teams were;

Stoke: Thomas Sorensen, Andy Wilkinson, Abdoulaye Faye, Ryan Shawcross, Danny Higginbotham, Liam Lawrence, Rory Delap, Dean Whitehead, Matthew Etherington (Glenn Whelan 76), James Beattie (Dave Kitson 67), Ricardo Fuller (Richard Cresswell 87). Subs not used: Steve Simonsen, Andy Griffin, Leon Cort, Danny Pugh.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Stephen Jordan, Christian Kalvenes, Graham Alexander (Steven Thompson 82), Martin Paterson (Chris Eagles 72), Wade Elliott, Chris McCann, Robbie Blake (Fernando Guerrero 72), Steven Fletcher. Subs not used: Diego Penny, Richard Eckersley, Kevin McDonald, Joey Gudjonsson.

Previous Games against Stoke

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