Back on the road at Forest

A trip to Bristol has been our only Saturday afternoon game on the road this season. Leeds, Derby and Rotherham were all moved for television, two of them to midweek evenings, whilst the trip to Ipswich, as is the case tonight, was one of our scheduled midweek games.

I could say we're getting used to the midweek traffic problems but probably the worst hold up we've had this season was the return journey from Bristol due to a tractor finding itself blocking two lanes on the M5.

It's not too bad of a journey tonight to take on a Forest side who were beaten at Bristol City on Friday a few hours before we beat Bolton 2-0 on the Turf with two Andre Gray goals to go fifth in the table.

Ben Mee expects a tough game

Sean Dyche reacted to a comment during a television interview after the Rotherham game which suggested it was a relief to get a win having failed to win either of the two previous games. His response was that was now five wins in seven and the Bolton game has made it six wins in the last eight, and no team has bettered that.

Besides two goals for Andre Gray in Saturday's win, taking his total for the season to six including the two he netted for Brentford, we were also able to collect our third clean sheet. Ben Mee said: "I think the defence is getting better and better as a unit.

"Obviously Ten has come in and been fantastic, and you can see him growing. Us five at the back will keep fighting and keep looking to pick up clean sheets."

As we travel to Nottingham, Mee is aware that this is going to be a tough game. He said: "Confidence is high and we're looking forward to the game. It's going to be a tough one, they didn't have the best result on Friday against Bristol City.

"They've always been a tough team and the City Ground is a difficult place to go so it'll be an interesting game but one we're looking forward to."

Mee has played in an unchanged back four all season in front of goalkeeper and captain Tom Heaton. There is certainly competition for those places, particularly at full back where both Matt Lowton and Stephen Ward are waiting patiently in the wings.

I'd expect it to be the same tonight but there could be a change further up the pitch with George Boyd doubtful. It will certainly be a different looking Burnley side if he doesn't make it after coming off with an injured ankle on Saturday; since signing for the Clarets he's started every single league game, a run of 46 games that kicked off at Crystal Palace in September last year.

Dyche confirmed that he didn't train yesterday but was giving him as long as possible. I suspect he's not going to make it and that would mean either a quick recall for Michael Kightly, who has lost out in the last two games with the inclusion of Joey Barton, or a first league start this season for Matt Taylor who has been used as a substitute in every one of our Championship fixtures.

Right now I'm thinking that Taylor is the most likely and if so we would line up: Tom Heaton, Tendayi Darikwa, Michael Duff, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, Scott Arfield, Joey Barton, David Jones, Matt Taylor, Sam Vokes, Andre Gray. Subs: Matt Gilks, Matt Lowton, Stephen Ward, Fredrik Ulvestad, Michael Kightly, Rouwen Hennings, Chris Long.

Nottingham Forest go into tonight's game in 14th place in the table with 12 points from their 11 games and it is notable that two thirds of those points have come away from the City Ground. At home they've won one and drawn one of their five games, those points coming in their first two home games of the season against Rotherham (2-1) and Charlton (0-0). They've since been beaten by Cardiff, Middlesbrough and Hull.

Things have settled down somewhat at Forest. Manager Dougie Freedman has been in the role since the beginning of February and, Billy Davies apart, that's a long run with such as Steve Cotterill, Sean O'Driscoll, Alex McLeish and Stuart Pearce coming and going quickly since they were taken over by the Kuwaitis.

Forest and Burnley have been linked constantly over the last year and more because of our pursuit of Henri Lansbury, but that's over now, he's the Forest captain and will line up against us tonight for the first time since all those shenanigans during the last three transfer windows.

Forest continue to have selection problems although Eric Lichaj will be available after missing the Bristol game due to a suspension. Central defender Matt Mills though remains out as he serves the last match of his ban.

They had a few players out injured too and none of Michael Mancienne, Kyle Ebecilio, Andy Reid, Chris Cohen, Ben Osborn and Robert Tesche are expected to feature while Matty Fryatt and Britt Assombalonga remain out with long term injuries.

Their team last Friday was: Dorus De Vries, Danny Fox, Jack Hobbs, Kelvin Wilson, Daniel Pinillos, Chris Burke, Henri Lansbury, David Vaughan, Ryan Mendes, Chris O'Grady, Nelson Oliveira. Subs: Dimitar Evtimov, Tyler Walker, Jorge Grant, Alex Iacovitti, Dexter Blackstock, Johnny Williams, Jamie Ward. 

Last Time We Were There

Burnley travelled to Nottingham Forest in November 2013. Having won seven successive league games during September and October, we'd drawn the next two at Millwall and at home to Bournemouth and this one provided us with a third successive draw.

The game was, according to Billy Davies, total domination by Forest, but everyone else in the ground could see that was nonsense although we did have to withstand a lot of pressure during the second half although, something Billy didn't notice, Forest didn't really create much in terms of chances.

Sam Vokes scores from the penalty spot

It was hardly the free flowing stuff we'd seen from us. We went in front with a Sam Vokes penalty with Forest equalising soon afterwards and then didn't really threaten in the second half and for a while a second defeat of the season did look possible.

Henri Lansbury crashed a free kick against the bar, you just knew his name would come up again, but the longer the game went on the more secure we looked defensively. Everyone of our defence came out of the game with great credit whilst Vokes up front was again outstanding.

The teams were;

Nottingham Forest: Karl Darlow, Eric Lichaj (Nathaniel Chalobah ht), Jack Hobbs, Jamaal Lascelles, Chris Cohen, Jamie Paterson (Darius Henderson 76), Gonzalo Jara, Radoslaw Majewski, Henri Lansbury (Djamel Abdoun 69), Jamie Mackie, Simon Cox. Subs not used: Dorus De Vries, Dan Harding, Marcus Tudgay, Matt Derbyshire.

Burnley: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Scott Arfield, David Edgar, David Jones, Michael Kightly (Keith Treacy 63), Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs not used: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, Brian Stock, Junior Stanislas, Ryan Noble.

Previous Games against Nottingham Forest

Click HERE to see all previous results against Nottingham Forest (no cup games shown prior to season 1986/87)