Clarets looking forward

There's little doubt that a good league campaign is needed at Turf Moor this season. Many fans feel that they have been deprived of a full season of football over the last two years, due to the January sales of Robbie Blake and Ade Akinbiyi respectively.

In these seasons, the Clarets have relied heavily upon the aforementioned strikers, to provide the goals needed to compete successfully at this level. This season the Burnley faithful will look to Andy Gray and Steve Jones for regular goals and with Kyle Lafferty making tremendous progress, both for his club and for his country, he will no doubt provide Steve Cotterill with a few selection headaches throughout the next eight months with regards to his attacking selections.

After scoring Northern Ireland's winner against a Finland side containing many familiar names in midweek, a very confident Lafferty is expected to partner Steve Jones up front against Wolves on Saturday, with Andy Gray sitting the game out, following his late dismissal at Sheffield Wednesday last Saturday.

Wolves have made an indifferent start to their league campaign, picking up four points from their first three games. New manager, Mick McCarthy has made a number of additions to his squad and today has added two further new faces, in capturing Liverpool midfielder, Darren Potter on a season long loan and striker Jemal Johnson from Blackburn Rovers on a permanent deal. Both will likely give Wolves that extra ‘cutting edge' that was so desperately missing from their performance against Preston North End last Friday evening.

One player that did impress during that game was Jay Bothroyd. The former Blackburn striker decided to step down a level, joining Wolves from Charlton on a free transfer during the close season. It appears to have been a wise move for the 24 year old; one that could certainly help him to resurrect his career.

However, the Islington born forward faces a race to be fit for the game, after picking up a calf injury in training and with Carl Cort having to serve the third game of his three match suspension, former Sunderland manager, McCarthy, must decide whether or not new signing, Johnson should go straight into his starting eleven.

Steve Cotterill's selection will be somewhat easier than McCarthy's though. Following Tuesday's news that Danny Karbassiyoon had left the club by mutual consent, Duane Courtney has today, followed suit, with the club terminating his contract. Twenty players remain on the Turf Moor books and with Danny Coyne still recovering from his long term injury and Gifton Noel-Williams on the look out for a fresh start elsewhere, Cotterill is left with a relatively tight squad, albeit one that he is happy with. With the transfer window closing at the end of the month, one must wonder, whether Cotterill will add new blood to the ranks, ahead of what could be a crucial couple of months for Burnley.

Although we perhaps should take each Burnley game as it comes, it is hard not to take notice of the next dozen fixtures. There is no easy game in the Championship and no disrespect is meant to any team, but if the Clarets are to make real progress this season, many would argue that a healthy proportion of points should be accumulated between now and November. All three of the newly promoted sides come to Turf Moor in this period and it is important that no opposing team is taken for granted. A decent return of points would instil further belief into both the squad and supporters ahead of a potentially very difficult November month, in which Burnley will test themselves against a number of the pre-season promotion favourites.

Many of our results will depend on the performance of our midfield. In the centre, Micah Hyde and Chris McCann looked extremely composed at Leicester; bringing great composure and balance to the side. At Sheffield Wednesday, the same midfield four found their roles somewhat more difficult and this inevitably affected the whole team's performance. If the Burnley manager can find a settled midfield four, as we witnessed at Leicester and one which can give Alan Mahon the freedom he needs to influence games, there is no reason (injuries and suspensions apart), why Burnley cannot maintain their excellent start to the 2006/07 campaign.