Back to the league and the draw specialists

Last updated : 10 January 2009 By Tony Scholes

It doesn't seem two minutes since we were leaving Ashton Gate with a 2-1 win against Bristol City, a win that took us to 43 points with almost half of the season still to go. And yet in those three weeks since we've lost a couple of league games, drawn an FA Cup tie and fallen to a harsh 4-1 defeat at White Hart Lane against Spurs.

Suddenly here we are on a run of four games without a win, with a squad of players that are creaking with injuries and suspensions. But we all know that this Burnley side is just a win away from another good run, as anyone who saw the first half against Spurs can testify.

With another couple of cup ties coming up at home in the next week and a half it would be nice to get off that 43 points against Swansea and start to get that distance back between ourselves and some of the clubs just below.

Our Opponents


We're just over a week into January and Roberto Martinez has been able to strengthen his squad since the window opened with a couple of loan signings, although one of them is very familiar to the Swans fans.

Dimitrios Konstantopoulos had been on loan from Coventry but was recalled as goalkeeping cover last week for the Sky Blues' FA Cup tie. However, he's been allowed to return to the Liberty Stadium until the end of this month.

The other loan signing, completed on New Year's Day, is a player more familiar to Burnley fans. Nathan Dyer who was with us on loan back in 2005 has signed from cash strapped Southampton until the end of the season.

Swansea arrive at Turf Moor without a win since November, and incredibly also without a defeat since November. Their last win was against Norwich, their last defeat was against Birmingham, and since then they have gone on a run of eight successive draws.

That has left them in eleventh place in the table but surely they won't make it nine tomorrow. Whilst this is our third game of the year, Swansea will be playing for the first time after having their FA Cup tie at Histon called off.

Click HERE to see all Swansea's results this season


Team News


Both Nathan Dyer and Dimitrios Konstantopoulos will be in the Swansea squad but the game will probably come too soon for Fede Bessone who has been out with a hamstring injury. They will also be without Matty Collins who has an ankle injury whilst both Marcos Painter and Ferrie Bodde are out with knee injuries, in Bodde's case a cruciate ligament injury that will keep him out for the rest of the season.

Swansea could line up: Dorus De Vries, Angel Rangel, Ashley Williams, Gary Monk, Alan Tate, Jordi Gomez, Leon Britton, Darren Pratley, Joe Allen, Mark Gower, Gorka Pintando. Subs from: Dimitrios Konstantopoulos, Andrea Orlandi, Albert Serran, Nathan Dyer, Jason Scotland, Thomas Butler, Fabian Brandy.

Click HERE to see the full Swansea squad


Burnley will be without midfielder Joey Gudjonsson who was forced off after half an hour at Spurs with a hamstring injury. It looks as though he could be out for a few weeks which is a blow given the way he was playing on Tuesday.

The good news for the Clarets is that both Steven Caldwell and Steven Thompson are available again. Caldwell has just completed a two match ban whilst Thompson is back in contention after being cup tied on Tuesday.

It would be no surprise to see Michael Duff go to full back with Graham Alexander moving into the holding role to replace Gudjonsson and that might just be the only change to the side provided Chris McCann is fit enough to play.

The possible team: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Chris Eagles, Wade Elliott, Chris McCann, Robbie Blake, Martin Paterson. Subs from: Diego Penny, Christian Kalvenes, Kevin McDonald, Alan Mahon, Alex MacDonald, Jay Rodriguez, Ade Akinbiyi.

Last Time


Kurt Nogan
Kurt Nogan - scored the first goal
It's some time since we last played Swansea at Turf Moor, back in the early part of the 1995/96 season to be exact. Burnley had been relegated at the end of the previous season.

The game was played in front of a strange looking Turf Moor. It was the first home game without any crowd on the Longside and the old covered terrace had been partially demolished.

Burnley went into the game in thirteenth place in the table with twelve points whilst the Swans were two points and two places below us.

Kurt Nogan gave us the lead after a quarter of an hour and from then the result was never really in doubt. It was still 1-0 at half time but second half goals from Warren Joyce and David Eyres ensured a comfortable 3-0 win.

It was the start of a six game unbeaten run for the Clarets that would see us climb into fourth place.

The teams were;

Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Gary Parkinson, Gerry Harrison, Mark Winstanley, Chris Vinnicombe, Paul McDonald, Warren Joyce, Adrian Randall, Ted McMinn, Kurt Nogan, David Eyres.

Swansea: Roger Freestone, David Barnhouse, Mark Clode, Keith Walker, Christian Edwards, Steve Jenkins, Jonathan Coates (David Thomas), Carl Heggs, Steve Torpey, Kwame Ampadu, John Hodge.

Previous games against Swansea


Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1992/93

2

h

1-0

10,913

Penney

.

.

a

1-1

4,973

Farrell

1993/94

2

a

1-3

3,358

Francis

..

h

1-1

10,694

Davis

1995/96

2

h

3-0

8,068

Nogan Joyce Eyres

..

a

4-2

2,078

Eyres Nogan Cooke(2)

2008/09

C

a

1-1

13,299

Gudjonsson



Click HERE to see all our results against Swansea