Burnley are looking for their fourth consecutive victory at Pride Park this Saturday when they play Derby County.
The Pre-amble:
There is not much to choose between Burnley and Derby County this season so far in the Championship. Both teams have seven points from four games with the Rams in 8th spot just edging Burnley in 9th on goal difference (by plus 3 to plus 1!). Something then will have to give on Saturday when the two clubs play each other at Pride Park and Burnley will be looking for their fourth consecutive victory on this ground. There is all to play four with the top teams in the division currently only on ten points. Three points for the Clarets could set our Championship promotion challenge back on track following the disappointing defeat away to Brighton last Saturday although at least spirits were soon raised again after dumping League One Preston out of the Capital One Cup in the local derby at Turf Moor on Tuesday night. Nigel Clough`s men though will have other ideas and similar ambitions so the scene is set for a closely fought battle.
Derby County Team News:
Rams midfielder Jeff Hendrick will miss out after sustaining an ankle injury in Derby’s 3-0 away win over Yeovil last Saturday.
Player to watch: Lee Grant
It will be interesting to see how well Lee Grant is settling in at his new club after leaving Burnley in the summer. A favourite last season winning a number of player of the year awards, Burnley fans are perhaps now happier that Tom Heaton has since replaced the former Number 1 Clarets goalkeeper.
Burnley Team News:
Tom Heaton has completed his one match suspension after picking up a second booking and being sent off in the Brighton game last Saturday. He now looks set to return and replace his able deputy Alex Cisak who did well against Preston on Tuesday night. Ross Wallace recovering from knee surgery is our only player now out of contention and he won`t be fit for another 3-4 months.
Player to watch: Tom Heaton
It will be an interesting exercise to compare the two rival keepers and see who performs the better of the two on the day. The hope of course is that our former keeper will be outshone by our latest number one between the sticks. It would certainly be nice to put a few past Grant and see a few of his infamous flaps again!
Team & Tactics:
Dyche made a few changes for the Preston game bringing in Michael Duff, Ben Mee and David Edgar to replace Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty and Dean Marney respectively who were all on the bench. It could be that the two defenders might retain their place. Long had a pretty grim day out at Brighton making a couple of expensive blunders in defence and despite Lafferty playing well you just sense Dyche prefers to play Mee when fit at left back. I will opt for the following line-up :
Heaton, Trippier, Duff, Shackell, Mee, Treacy, Jones, Marney, Arfield, Ings, Vokes
Subs: Cisak, Lafferty, Long, Edgar, Stock, Stanislas, Noble
Ref Watch:
Wakefield referee, Andy Madley is in charge of this clash. Madley has refereed the Clarets just once before in our Capital One Cup tie against Plymouth at Turf Moor last season. He actually flashed five yellows in that game alone although in his 38 games in charge last season only 3 saw red with another 106 in total picking up yellow cards. One person so far this season has been sent off by this referee with another 15 seeing yellow from the six games he has been referee.
Match Prediction:
This will be one tough challenge and it is difficult to imagine coming away with a victory yet again from Pride Park. A draw sounds a good bet though so how about 2-2?
Next Match:
It`s back to Turf Moor after the International break for the big derby against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday 14th September. This is being televised live on Sky Sports and kicks-off early at 12:15 pm
