Clarets in cup action

When we were last there on August Bank Holiday 2005 I didn't honestly think that they were bound for the top division for the first time in their history. We'd made a bad start to the season but we were every bit as good as they were on the day and were somewhat unfortunate to come away with a 2-1 defeat.

Ade Akinbiyi scored for us that day, the home goals came from Leroy Lita and Kevin Doyle, two players as much as any other who have helped turn the last eighteen months into something of a success story for the Berkshire club.

Promotion last season proved easy in the end, they broke the Football League's points record previously held by Sunderland, were sixteen points clear of second place and no fewer than twenty-five points ahead of Watford in third place, and they came very close to hitting three figures in goals, scoring ninety-nine in the league.

It had been a remarkable achievement but of course they were going to go into the Premiership, struggle like hell, and in all certainty come straight back down. Think again, they are currently in the top half of the league, have thirty points, and it would take a disastrous second half of the season now to see them relegated.

They went to Stamford Bridge recently and earned a draw, took on leaders Manchester United at Old Trafford only to come out on the wrong end of a 3-2 scoreline and then last week hammered the Hammers 6-0 at home.

Has all this been achieved following a very busy summer in the transfer market with any number of new players arriving? Hardly, manager Steve Coppell made just six signings and only one of those players has had any real impact on the first team. That's Seol Ki-Hyeon who joined them from Wolves for £1.5 million. He's featured in all but two of their Premiership games to date.

Other signings were Brentford's Sam Sodje who has started just two league games this season, goalkeeper Graham Stack whose only first team appearances have been at Leeds where he is currently playing on loan, and Ecuador defender Ulises de la Cruz who, like Sodje, has played twice.

To add to that group they also have two players on loan. One is Hungarian midfielder Peter Mate on loan from Debreceni but he, like Stack, is yet to appear in their league side although he did both play and score in the Carling Cup against Darlington, a game they won on penalties.

The other is Andre Bikey, a Cameroon defender who is with Reading on loan from Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow. His appearances too have been limited, his only league start came last month in a goalless draw at Watford.

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

This is a difficult one to work out for both teams, and certainly for Reading after manager Steve Coppell confirmed that a number of his regular starters will sit this game out, and it could be a different team altogether to the side that made it a miserable New Year's Day for new West Ham boss Alan Curbishley.

It does give Coppell the opportunity to bring two players back who have been out with injury, midfielder Bobby Convey and Dave Kitson, the red haired striker who doesn't like people to mention it. Kitson has been out since the opening game of the season.

The Reading side could look something like: Adam Federici, Brynjar Gunnarsson, Ivar Ingimarsson, Andre Bikey, Scott Golbourne, James Henry, John Oster, James Harper, Bobby Convey, Shane Long, Dave Kitson.

Who is on the subs bench will depend on whether Coppell decides to put some insurance on there, possibly midfielder Steve Sidwell, striker Kevin Doyle and even ex-Claret Glen Little.

Click HERE to see the full Reading squad.

There'll be changes too in the Burnley side. We know central defender Michael Duff is out serving a one match suspension, and we are all hoping to see a player up front wearing a number 20 shirt, following his return to Turf Moor just ahead of the postponed game against Stoke on New Year's Day.

But Steve Cotterill has admitted to considering his options ahead of the game, mainly centred on the defence and also the left hand side of midfield where he has said Steve Jones has looked tired recently. In defence it does look as though he's going to keep captain Wayne Thomas at right back, and with Frank Sinclair still ruled out, that means he will use either Stephen Foster or Chris McCann alongside John McGreal.

In midfield, if he decides to give Jones a rest, he's the only player to have played in all our games this season, then Alan Mahon could be the one to come in, giving us this possible line up:

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

The two sides have met only once before in the FA Cup and that's 41 years ago. It was in the 4^th round on that occasion. We'd beaten Brentford in a Griffin Park replay whilst 3^rd Division Reading had beaten Watford, Aldershot and Newport County.

There were suggestions that the tie could be called off following the death of former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill whose state funeral was held on the morning of the game, but in the end kick offs were delayed for a minute's silence, although some Burnley fans had a delay in getting to Reading as their train was held up whilst the train carrying Churchill back to Oxfordshire went through.

I'm not so sure what Chairman Bob Lord thought about it but the game was televised to allow highlights to be shown the following afternoon and in front of a crowd of 17,872 at Elm Park we earned ourselves a replay in a 1-1 draw with a goal from Andy Lochhead.

There were 20,591 inside Turf Moor for the replay just three days later and again Lochhead was the hero, scoring the only goal of the game to take us through and to a tie against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The Burnley team in the first game was: Adam Blacklaw, Fred Smith, Brian O'Neil, John Talbut, Brian Miller, Ian Towers, Andy Lochhead, Willie Irvine, Gordon Harris, Arthur Bellamy.

We made three changes for the replay. Jimmy Robson replaced Irvine at centre-forward, whilst Willie Morgan came in at outside-right with Ian Towers moving to outside-left in place of Arthur Bellamy.