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Almost like Bournemouth again

Last updated : 20 January 2006 By Tony Scholes
Chris Sedgwick
Manager Billy Davies, the short, arm waving, constantly whinging gentleman who can be found in the Preston technical area, has been busy in the transfer market since the window opened and last week signed Brian Stock from Bournemouth just in time for him to play against Millwall.

Stock was in the midfield for Bournemouth in that cup tie last season in a 4-4-2 formation alongside Wade Elliott, John Spicer and Garreth O’Connor who will all be in the Clarets dressing room tomorrow afternoon.

Stock is not the only new signing at Deepdale recently, a week earlier Davies swooped to sign 20 year-old midfielder Simon Whaley from Bury. Whaley also made his debut in the game against Millwall, which North End won 2-0, coming on as a substitute for Stock with thirteen minutes to go.

They are the only new signings at Deepdale since the clubs last met earlier in the season but Davies is suggesting that there could be a new forward in the squad by the time they reach Burnley with Southampton’s Brett Ormerod the favourite.

Alongside that there has been transfer activity out of the club with Dickson Etuhu joining Norwich for £450,000 at the beginning of the month after initially joining the Norfolk club early in November. Etuhu played his last loan game against Preston, yes they incredibly gave him permission to play, and he broke Adam Nowland’s leg during that game.

Preston will come to Burnley with the second longest unbeaten run in the division. They have not lost since a 3-0 defeat at Luton on the last Saturday in September and the unbeaten run is now seventeen league games.

Those games have brought them a total of 31 points from seven wins and ten draws, during the same period the Clarets have actually won two more league games but we are two points behind that total from one more game.

The run has perked up recently and they have won their last three games and from a lowly position of 16th during October they are now in the bottom play off place with five points more than the Clarets with one game in hand on us.

Click HERE to see all Preston’s results this season.

A win is vital for the Clarets tomorrow, we are already out of any race for automatic promotion but we are also now ten points behind the second play off place which suggests we are in a fight now for only two play off places unless we can go on a good run.

Team News

Preston won’t be at full strength but there are no new injuries in the Deepdale camp for Billy Davies to worry about. Andy Lonergan, Andy Smith, Adam Nowland and Michael Brown are all long term casualties whilst two other players, Brian O’Neil and Matt Hill, are still both a couple of weeks away from being fit.

Davies says his team have worked well for what will be a tough game and he admitted that Burnley have a lot of good players besides Ade Akinbiyi and it will be a difficult game.

He’s likely to name the same side that beat Millwall last week which was: Carlo Nash, Graham Alexander, Youl Mawene, Claude Davis, Tyrone Mears, Chris Sedgwick, Paul McKenna, Brian Stock, Callum Davidson, David Nugent, Patrick Agyemang. Subs: Chris Lucketti, Lewis Neal, Simon Whaley, Dave Hibbert, Danny Dichio.

Click HERE to see the full Preston squad.

There is certain to be one change in the Burnley side with Ade Akinbiyi ruled out with a one match ban following his fifth yellow card of the season last week at Cardiff. The decision was harsh and so he will have to sit out this game, the first game he’s missed since making his first Burnley start at Sheffield United last season.

Almost certainly it will be Gifton Noel-Williams who replaces Ade in what I expect will be a 4-5-1 system. Steve Cotterill could look at bringing back either Graham Branch or John Spicer or both but I suspect he might otherwise start with the team that was badly beaten just a week ago at Ninian Park.

If so we will line up: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Wayne Thomas, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O’Connor, Micah Hyde, Chris McCann, Garreth O’Connor, Gifton Noel-Williams. Subs: Michael Duff, Duane Courtney, Danny Karbassiyoon, John Spicer, Graham Branch.

Last Time

It was Robbie Blake’s day, his last home game for the Clarets and he scored both goals as we went on to win the game 2-0. There’s more of this and other recent home games against Preston in our look back Preston always seems to come in a tough week covering all the home games against them since we won promotion.

The teams in that game last season were,

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Gary Cahill, Frank Sinclair, Mo Camara, Lee Roche, James O’Connor, Tony Grant (Jean-Louis Valois 78), Micah Hyde, Ian Moore, Robbie Blake. Subs not used: Paul Scott, Joel Pilkington, Amadou Sanokho, Matt O’Neill.

Preston: Gavin Ward, Youl Mawene, Claude Davis, Chris Lucketti, Callum Davidson, Dickson Etuhu, Paul McKenna, Brian O’Neil (Omar Daly 89), Eddie Lewis, Richard Cresswell, Patrick Agyemang. Subs not used: Chris Neal, Graham Alexander, Marlon Broomes, Simon Lynch.

Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1985/86

4

a

0-1

5,585

.

..

h

1-1

3,835

Deakin

1986/87

4

h

1-4

5,974

James(pen)

.

.

a

1-2

10,716

Parker

1987/88

SV

h

0-0

15,680

.

..

a

3-1aet

17,592

Oghani Hoskin Comstive

1989/90

LD

a

0-3

5,241

.

1990/91

LD

a

1-6

12,016

Bray

1992/93

2

a

0-2

7,209

.

..

h

2-0

12,648

Heath(2)

1993/94

LC

a

2-1

6,283

Davis Eyres

.

.

h

4-1

9,346

Deary Eyres Francis Russell

.

AG

a

1-2

4,485

Eyres

1996/97

2

a

1-1

12,652

Nogan

..

h

1-2

16,186

Barnes

1997/98

2

h

1-1

13,809

Cooke

.

.

a

3-2

12,263

Payton Cooke N Moore

.

AW

h

1-0

10,079

Payton

1998/99

2

a

1-4

15,888

Eastwood

.AW

h

0-1

3,366

.

..

h

0-1

11,561

.

1999/2000

2

a

0-0

13,708

.

..

h

0-3

22,310

.

2000/01

1

a

1-2

17,355

Moore

.

.

h

3-0

16,591

Moore Ball Little

2001/02

1

a

3-2

20,370

Gnohere(2) Little

..

h

2-1

18,388

I Moore Johnson

2002/03

1

a

1-3

16,046

Taylor

.

.

h

2-0

12,245

Blake Papadopoulos

2003/04

1

a

3-5

18,802

I Moore Gnohere Blake(pen)

..

h

1-1

15,837

Blake

2004/05

C

h

2-0

15,318

Blake(2)

..

a

0-1

18,202

.

2005/06

C

a

0-0

17,139

.

Click HERE to see all our results against Preston, and our first league meeting was our very first Football League game.