Sky's the Limit!

The Clarets face Southampton at Turf Moor this afternoon with the strange kick-off time of 5:20 pm thanks to the Sky cameras being at the ground.

Burnley,now 10th with a game in hand and only 3 points behind the play-off places will be hoping to consolidate that position with a win to continue their challenge. It will be no easy task though against the Saints who have improved in recent times and now find themselves 12th only one point behind us.

Captain,Steve Caldwell picked up a knock against Barnsley and was replaced by David Unsworth for the midweek 2-1 victory against Norwich.

He remains doubtful for this match and Blake is still suffering from a nagging hamstring injury despite playing last Tuesday night. Jordan has also picked up an ankle injury. The gaffer will be delaying announcement of his team therefore to the last possible moment as the injured players get a chance to prove their fitness.

The team could look something like this:

Kiraly, Alexander, Carlisle, Unsworth, Harley, Elliott, Spicer, McCann, Lafferty, Gray, Akinbiyi

Subs: Jordan, James O'Connor, Blake, Jensen, Mahon.

Its vital really we get something from this game and begin to show we can maintian the pressure. The defence has been the weakness in recent matches and at times have looked like scared rabbits in the headlights of a car. We have to start keeping clean sheets and learning how to kill off games when we are one nil,even two nil up!

'A victory against Southampton would leave us with five wins, five draws and two defeats from 12 games.If that is not a decent start to the season, then I don't know what is.

'I know it's ifs and buts dependent on Saturday's result, but whatever it is, it is neither spectacular or desperate.

'We have done okay this year and we've had lots of compliments

'They get fed back to us through scouts. But you are always more critical of your own and that's probably what's happened.

'Negative influences that are outside cannot affect us though. At the end of the day we are where we are.

'We are playing some good football and if we can maintain it for a longer duration of the 90 minutes then it will be better.

'But it's very hard to dominate games in this league for 90 minutes.

'We have done that for over 45 minutes in quite a few games this year and maybe at half time, when they come in, I should give them a telling off!'

Caldwell, Blake and Jordan have nagging injuries and might not feature. This could see the return of Harley at left back and Ade Akinbiyi in the starting eleven.

Kyle Lafferty seems to grow in stature and confidence in every match. He looks hungry for goals and could get on the scoresheet today

The Saints midfielder Youssef Safri, is suspended after being sent off at Bristol City.

Formet Claret, Wayne Thomas could return but Andrew Davies and Darren Powell both have calf problems and Alexander Ostlund is sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Our former popular loan player returns! It will be interesting to see how he plays against us and whether we see any improvements in maturity and performance.

The last time we met at Turf Moor was back in September 2006 and it was a memorable match as we lost 2-3 with the sending off of Wayne Thomas beng a key to the defeat. Wayne had to run the gauntlet of the angry Clarets fans that day with accusations that he had become Saint Thomas! How bizarre that 12 months down the line he became a Southampton player and could face us today.

We will shade this match by the odd goal 2-1 Clarets

We travel to Bramall Lane to play the Blades on Saturday 3rd November 3pm KO. Not usually a happy hunting ground

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