Swansea Next League Test, Boyo!

The Clarets play their second away game of the new season this Saturday (28th August 3pm Kick-Off) and it`s another long track for locally based Clarets fans. This time they have to travel down to deepest Wales to see the lads play against Swansea City

Burnley in third place on seven points will be hoping to maintain their unbeaten record after two home wins and one away draw from their three opening games of the season.

Swansea City, in contrast now managed by Brendan Rodgers have had an average start to the season having won one match at home but lost two games on the road. They sit in 14th spot with three points. Clarets fans will be aware though that those three points came from the Swans last home game in the Championship when they thumped Preston 4-0 at the Liberty Stadium so we will certainly need to be on our guard this Saturday.

Defender, Angel Rangel suffered a thigh muscle tear in the game against Preston at the Liberty Stadium earlier this month. He came off with 19 minutes to go and now following a scan faces being sidelined for 4-6 weeks.

Swansea travel to Tranmere Rovers in the second round of the League Cup on Tuesday night and we will bring any subsequent news of injuries and/or suspensions following that game

Dyer is no stranger to Clarets fans. The diminutive 5ft 5 midfielder, now 22 had a successful spell on loan from Southampton under Steve Cotterill in late 2005 scoring two goals in five appearances before being recalled by the Saints.

Further loans at Sheffield United and Swansea City followed before he made the move to the Liberty Stadium permanent. The two clubs agreed a £400,000 fee and he signed for the Swans in June 2009. He has already opened his account this season scoring one of the goals in the 4-0 thumping of Preston.

Chris McCann is of course sidelined for about six months following surgery to once-and-for -all fix his cruciate ligament.

Michael Duff is also still struggling with a calf injury and is targeting a return against Preston at Turf Moor on Saturday 11th September. Following a scan it would appear that Duff has a slight tear in his calf and needs longer to recuperate.

David Edgar will however be available after picking up an automatic one-match suspension following his sending off at Ipswich for two bookable offences. He sat out the home game against Leicester last Saturday and is now in contention.

At the time of writing just before the Morecambe Carling Cup game we had no further injury or suspension worries so we shall have to hope we come through unscathed from Tuesday night`s match this week. We shall bring you news if that changes.

A goal for Pato would do him a power of good although of course at the moment he is being used out wide and is more likely to be a goal provider rather than goal scorer.

Assuming all our players have no ill effects from the midweek Carling Cup game against Morecambe on Tuesday night, I suspect we will retain the 4-5-1 formation and name a similar eighteen to the one that faced Leicester. David Edgar could be preferred to Kevin McDonald on the bench though since he gives us more options. He can play anywhere across the back four and was tried in the holding midfield role in the pre-season build-up.

The eighteen could look like this although a lot of Clarets fans are suggesting Jack Cork should be given a starting role with Marney dropping back to the bench:

Jensen, Mears, Carlisle, Bikey, Fox, Alexander Marney, Elliott, Wallace, Iwelumo, Paterson

Subs: Grant, Cort, Cork, Edgar, Eagles, Rodriguez, Thompson

Last Time We Met

The last time we played Swansea City of course was in our promotion season of 2008-9. We certainly did not get the better of the Swans that season though. We were unlucky not to come away with all three points at the Liberty Stadium when we played them there in September 2008 but they scored a late goal and we had to be content with a 1-1 draw. It had looked like a rare headed goal by substitute, Joey Gudjonsson on 59 minutes was going to be enough as we entered into four minutes of added time. A defensive blunder by Jordan let in Ferrie Bodde for the Swans to equalise at the death.

Things got worse for the Clarets during their now traditional Christmas and New Year slump when in the return game at Turf Moor played on the 10th January 2009 Duff got sent off after 35 minutes and we lost 2-0 to Swansea. Many Clarets fans after this result now doubted we would be candidates for promotion come the end of the season.Thankfully we got over the traditional festive blues and the rest is history!

You can read about both these games in full by going to the Vital Burnley Match Report archive via these links:

It Feels Like a Loss

Duff Game, Duff Ref, Duff Off

Somerset referee, Steve Tanner will be in charge of this one. Tanner now 39 joined the Select Group Referees list in 2007 and took charge of his first game as a full-time Select Group Official between Wigan Athletic and Middlesbrough in August 2007. He was also in charge of his first game in the Premier League in December 2006.

A point would be an excellent result and I am going for another 1-1 to keep the 'win at home, draw away` momentum going! Of course if we could sneak it....

We now have an International break and will return to action with the juicy derby game against Preston North End at Turf Moor on Saturday 11th September. Don`t forget this game is also being televised live by the BBC and will kick-off later than usual at 5:15 pm.

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