The Clarets play their second pre-season friendly of the summer on Tuesday night (12th July Kick-Off: 7:45 pm) away to Bury at Gigg Lane. They will be looking to continue their winning ways after defeating Altrincham 4-2 at Moss Lane on Saturday and this will certainly be a tougher test against the League 1 new boys.
The Pre-amble
The Clarets of course are now stepping up their pre-season preparations and will be hoping to continue their winning ways in their second friendly of the summer. Bury though will be somewhat stronger opposition than Blue Square North club, Altrincham who were on the receiving end of a 4-2 defeat at Moss Lane on Saturday,
The Shakers were promoted to the third tier of the football league for the first time since 2002 at the end of last season despite losing their manager Alan Knill, along with assistant Chris Brass as late as March this year. The pair left to take over at Scunthorpe United leaving caretaker manager, Richie Barker in charge at Gigg Lane. The lad did OK though winning all six of his first six games in charge, seeing Bury gain promotion after finishing second in League 2 just five points behind Champions, Chesterfield. The club decided to offer the position permanently to Barker in the summer. They will be keen to make an impression and will have been encouraged by their 5-1 thumping of Radcliffe Borough away on Saturday in their opening pre-season game.
Eddie Howe has once again virtually a full squad to choose from and we can expect to see most of them at some point during the game. Striker, Charlie Austin was rested against Altrincham and there is a chance he could play against Bury allowing Clarets fans the first chance to see him in action since he dislocated his shoulder at the end of February. At the time of writing this article, despite plenty of speculation, there was still no summer signings to talk about so whether we see any new faces on Tuesday night remains to be seen.
Howe played two totally different teams in each half against Altrincham and we could expect the same against Bury. We do have a trialist third-string keeper at Turf Moor at the moment, Jon Stewart and Howe certainly seems keen to sign him. The former Bournemouth stopper was at Altrincham on Saturday but did not feature so we might see him between the sticks at some point against Bury on Tuesday night.
Bury Team News:
The official Bury website state that four players could be making their Shakers debut including new signing, defender Mark Hughes (see Bury Player to Watch)
Player to watch: Mark Hughes
Bury signed Mark Hughes last month but their new central defender could have his work cut out against Championship opposition. The 24 year old started his career with Everton and also during his time there had a loan spell at Stockport County. He was a regular captain for the Everton reserves team and made three appearances in the Toffees first team before signing a two year contract for Northampton Town in January 2007 for an undisclosed fee. Stuart Gray was manager at the time! In July 2009, Hughes signed for League One club Walsall on a free transfer. Hughes then joined Australian A-League side North Queensland Fury in June 2010 but they were wound up because of financial problems in March this year, so up stepped Bury to rescue him in June giving him a two-year contract.
Burnley Team News:
Whether we will have any new faces on show this Tuesday night is anybody`s guess but we could at least see Charlie Austin in action for the first time since last February following his recovery from a dislocated shoulder.
Player to watch: Ross Wallace
Wallace was kind of eclipsed by a stunning Martin Paterson performance in the first-half at Moss Lane on Saturday but he looked very effective and influential. Both of course, indeed the whole team was changed for the start of the second-half so we could not form an opinion over 90 minutes. It was an encouraging first 45 minutes though. He had a somewhat indifferent season in 2010-11 for the Clarets and you just sensed we never really saw what he was capable of. Let`s hope this could be his year!
Last Time We Met
Well of course if we are talking friendlies that`s easy! This time last year of course we played Bury at Gigg Lane in our first pre-season friendly of summer 2010 and came away with a 3-0 victory. Goals by debutant boy, Ross Wallace, Steven Thompson and Chris Eagles were enough to see off the Shakers and provide some encouragement for manager, Brian Laws. Both teams elected to put out a completely different team in each half and no doubt we can expect the same again, at least from the Clarets.
Match Prediction:
3-1 Clarets would be about right!
Next Pre-season Friendly
The Clarets embark on their South West tour of England next week taking in a couple of games against League 2 opposition starting with a friendly against Bristol Rovers at the Memorial Stadium on the night of Tuesday 19th July (Kick-Off: 7:45pm).
They then travel down to sunny Torquay on Saturday for a game against The Gulls at Plainmoor (Kick-Off: 3pm)
