Turf Titbits

Vital Burnley brings you little snippets of recent Clarets news that you may have missed this month.

Clarets International

You will have read about Jay Rodriguez first England Under 21 cap after coming on from the bench on the hour mark in the friendly game against Italy U21 at the Stadio Carlo Castellani in Empoli in midweek. Jack Cork too though also made an appearance coming on to replace the injured Jack Rodwell with only twelve minutes of the match played. The midfielder was now playing however in the unfamiliar role of central back and by all accounts he did pretty well with some commentators making him their man of the match despite Stuart Pearce`s men going down to a 1-0 defeat.

There was also an international debut for Clarets defender, David Edgar. Currently out on his second loan with Swansea, this time to the end of the season, Edgar came on as a substitute after 66 minutes in Canada`s 1-0 friendly defeat against Greece in the AEL FC Arena in Larissa last Wednesday night.

Fixture Change Mayhem

The FA Cup fifth round draw has wreaked havoc with our scheduled fixtures for February. We were of course drawn against West Ham at the Boleyn Ground. It was already known that our scheduled league game that Saturday against Coventry City would have to be postponed but then ESPN announced they wanted to televise the game live meaning the tie would have to be moved to the following Monday night. Unfortunately for the Clarets, this meant it would be too close to another of our League games which was scheduled to be played against Middlesbrough at Turf Moor on the night of Tuesday 22nd February so this fixture too has now been postponed. New dates for both these home games have now been fixed but the changes mean that the Clarets have now been forced into playing four consecutive matches away including the FA Cup tie. They will not have a home game now until they play Crystal Palace on Saturday 5th Match.

Just so you are clear then here are the revised dates and times for the affected matches:

West Ham (A) (FAC5) Monday 21st February 2011 8pm Kick-Off (ESPN Live Coverage)

Coventry City (H) Tuesday 15th March 2011 7:45pm Kick-Off

Middlesbrough (H) Tuesday 19th April 2011 7:45pm Kick-Off

Burnley X-Files-Dave Kevan on the Move Again!

Former Burnley assistant manager Dave Kevan joined the backroom staff at Hereford United earlier this month.
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Kevan was Steve Cotterill`s former right-hand man at Turf Moor and finished up at Notts County eventually working for a time again under Cotterill before he left for Pompey. Kevan left Notts County in October following Craig Short`s exit from Meadow Lane.

In December, Kevan then moved to Stockport but manager Paul Simpson departed just weeks later so he has now made his third move of the season to help out fellow League 2 strugglers, Hereford.

“I`m delighted to be involved,” said Kevan, who will work alongside Bulls manager Jamie Pitman and assistant Russell Hoult.

“I`m here as long as there is a job to do and the future will take care of itself.”

The Laws of the Beast!

Brian Jensen has recently been speaking frankly about his former boss after new manager, Eddie Howe managed to get the keeper to withdraw his transfer request. The Beast has not played since losing his place to Lee Grant after being dropped following the 4-0 defeat at home to Reading back in October. Before Laws was sacked as manager, Jensen handed in a transfer request and it had been thought he could leave the club in the January transfer window. Jensen, 35, felt his performances had not warranted being dropped and asked to be put on the transfer list in December. Laws departed as manager less than a fortnight later.

The Dane has however since decided to withdraw his request to leave after receiving assurances from Howe last month. He has however been speaking out concerning Laws and was clearly upset the way he had been treated by his former gaffer.

“I think it was the right thing to do when I spoke to the new gaffer.

“It`s not his fault I went on the transfer list in the first place.

“It wasn`t because I spat my dummy out and didn`t want to fight for anything. It was just the circumstances of how it happened.

“Now it`s 50/50 again and it`s fair and square. I will have as big a chance to get into the side as Granty staying in the side.

“That`s what I`m going for because it`s always worked for me in the past. I`m definitely going to try to get back in the side.

“But if it doesn`t work out unfortunately I may have to look somewhere else.

“To be fair to the old gaffer, he said that he wanted to bring someone in but the circumstances of how it happened and what happened after that was way out of control. I was not happy about it and that was the reason.

“You need to strengthen your squad and to have a lot of players to fight for places. I don`t have a problem with that whatsoever.

“People who know me, I`ve been here a long time, know I`m not that kind of person.

“I`m 35, I don`t have the time behind me,” he said.

“If I`m not happy and if I have to go somewhere else, that`s the way football goes.

“But short term I`m going to fight for it and do my very best to get back into the side.

“But in the past I`ve always had a little bit of time and been ready to fight for it and had time to get back into the side. I don`t feel I have that any more.

“It`s important for me to play ASAP and if it`s not possible I have to do what`s best for me and for my family.”

Jensen though has still to play for the Clarets this year so it will be interesting to see how things now develop but at least for the moment we don`t have to rush out and seek an emergency loan for a new keeper as cover for Grant.