All change at Stoke

If we needed evidence as to just how bad they were, we got it that afternoon, and so disillusioned were the home fans that they hardly remembered to target Steve Cotterill as he made his way down the touchline to the technical area.

The week after we had beaten them they lost again to Wolves but then things changed, they drew with Preston and then gave Leeds a 4-0 hammering? What had brought about the change? The answer is loan signings. Aston Villa's Lee Hendrie made his debut against Preston and in the next game Liverpool's Salif Diao had pitched up in the Potteries.

Things have hardly looked back since, and recently they went on a run of six wins and a draw without even conceding a single goal. They were in the relegation places ahead of that win over Leeds, but having beaten the relegation threatened Yorkshire outfit again on Saturday they find themselves out of the play offs only on goal difference.

The loan work had started before we got there in September with the signing of full back Andy Griffin from Portsmouth. He completed his three month loan earlier this month and five other loan signings are the players who have made the difference.

We've already mentioned Hendrie and Diao who arrived in September and at the beginning of October respectively. Rory Delap arrived for a month from RK Sunderland for a month in October and then a month later Liam Lawrence, another of the RK Sunderland film stars, signed with a view to a permanent deal as a replacement for Luke Chadwick who moved on to Norwich in a similar deal.

Finally, on the loan deadline day, former Liverpool midfielder Patrik Berger arrived at Stoke from Aston Villa, and that has left them with a significantly different team than the one that we beat so easily earlier in the season.

Things could change very soon at Stoke, and Pulis is hoping to bring both Griffin and Delap back on permanent deals whilst a move for Hendrie is not out of the question.

The run without conceding came to an end when they took something of a battering recently at Colchester. They have lost two of their last four games and on Boxing Day Sheffield Wednesday joined the Clarets as the only teams to beat them on their own ground.

Click HERE to see all Stoke's results this season.

The last eleven games between the two clubs have, it can be said, been very close. We've won seven of them by one goal, they've won two by one goal, and the other three have been draws.

The last time either side won one of these games by more than one goal was in the 1998/99 season when the Clarets won 4-1 on our first ever league visit to the Windy City.

Pulis has suggested he might shuffle his squad for this game but there is one change he has to make and another one that looks likely. Hendrie is now officially back at Villa and won't be able to play whilst the devout diving Ricardo Fuller is struggling with an injury sustained in Saturday's win over Leeds. Having scored the third goal he was replaced nine minutes from time by Vincent Pericard who is the likely replacement this afternoon.

If Pulis makes the minimum number of changes, as I suspect he will then we can expect the Stoke team to be: Steve Simonsen, Carl Hoefkens, Michael Duberry, Clint Hill, Danny Higginbotham, Liam Lawrence, Darel Russell, Salif Diao, Patrik Berger, Mamady Sidibe, Vincent Pericard. Subs: Dave Brammer, Peter Sweeney, Carl Dickinson, John Eustace, Lewis Buxton.

Click HERE to see the full Stoke squad.

John McGreal made a surprise return to the squad on Saturday via the subs bench despite not being fully fit and if he's considered fit enough then I'm sure he's be a starter this afternoon. Steve Cotterill spoke about the need to have his calmness at the back and there's no doubt he'll be first choice there.

There's no sign of the other injured players returning so that leaves us with a squad of seventeen to choose from, if Johnny Mac is available. I don't envisage many other changes although Kyle will probably come back into the starting eleven after coming off the bench on Saturday.

If Kyle returns then I think Chris McCann could be the one to miss out, he moved out to the left hand side initially at Hull with Jones playing up front, but Micah Hyde is more likely to play alongside James O'Connor in the centre of midfield.

Our team could be: Brian Jensen, Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Micah Hyde, Steve Jones, Gifton Noel-Williams, Kyle Lafferty. Subs from: Stephen Foster, Alan Mahon, Garreth O'Connor, Chris McCann, John Spicer, Graham Branch.

In the 2003/04 season they beat us in this fixture with an Ade Akinbiyi goal, a season later he scored twice as they came back from 2-0 to draw against us after Michael Duff had been sent off. So it was probably no surprise when Ade grabbed the only goal of the game on Boxing Day last season to seal a 1-0 victory for the Clarets.

The victory took us above Stoke, leaving us in fifth and sixth places respectively, and there was no suggestion that either of us were going to hit a slide, although in the end both of us ended the season as strugglers in the bottom half of the table.

It was played in front of our biggest crowd of the season but we didn't play particularly well in the first half and we were perhaps fortunate to go in level at half time.

The second half was so different, and we got ourselves so much on top and just eleven minutes in came the crucial goal. Wade Elliott and Michael Duff were the instigators down the right hand side and when there cross to the far post was knocked back across, there was Ade with the finishing touch.

It could have been two, it could have been three, and we were so much on top that as we moved into the last quarter of the game we even won a free kick, our first of the afternoon, from referee Nigel Miller.

In the end it was a deserved win and a win Stoke found difficult to deal with. As captain Frank Sinclair went to shake hands with Sammy Bangoura, who had turned in an inept performance, the Guinea born striker slapped him across the face.

The teams that Boxing Day were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, Micah Hyde, James O'Connor, Graham Branch (Wayne Thomas 86), Ade Akinbiyi, Gifton Noel-Williams. Subs not used: Lee Grant, Garreth O'Connor, Danny Karbassiyoon, John Spicer.

Stoke: Steve Simonsen, John Halls, Carl Hoefkens, Michael Duberry, Marlon Broomes, Luke Chadwick, Dave Brammer, Darel Russell, Paul Gallagher, Mamady Sidibe, Sammy Bangoura. Subs not used: Ed de Goey, Junior, Peter Sweeney, Lewis Buxton, Karl Henry.

Previous 20 Seasons
Season	Div	Ven	Result	Att	Scorers
1990/91	FAC	h	2-0	12,949	Francis White
1992/93	2	h	0-2	16,667	.
.	.	a	1-1	21,840	Randall
1994/95	1	h	1-1	15,331	Davis
.	.	a	0-2	13,040	.
1997/98	LC	h	0-4	4,175	.
.	.	a	0-2	6,041	.
1998/99	2	h	0-2	10,575	.
.	.	a	4-1	10,965	Pickering Payton Little(2)
1999/2000	2	h	1-0	11,328	Payton
.	.	a	2-2	15,354	Payton(2 1pen)
2002/03	1	h	2-1	14,244	Gnohere Papadopoulos
.	.	a	1-0	12,874	West
2003/04	1	a	2-1	14,876	May Chadwick
.	.	h	0-1	12,812	.
2004/05	C	h	2-2	12,981	Moore Blake(pen)
.	.	a	1-0	15,689	Cahill
2005/06	C	h	1-0	17,912	Akinbiyi
.	.	a	0-1	12,082	.
2006/07	C	a	1-0	12,247	Gray

Click HERE to see more results against Stoke since our first meeting in the inaugral league season of 1888/89.