Burnley 0 Huddersfield Town 1

Tuesday 26th February 2013, Kick Off 7:45pm

Turf Moor (capacity 22,500), Post Code - BB10 4BX

Directions...head for Todmordon...

Admission for Town fans £27 and £16 concessions...But note..NO Concessions available at the ground on the night, Adult Prices ONLY.

Turf Moor maybe the 10th highest ground at 413 feet, but the current form tables leaves them languishing one place above Towns 20th place.

Founder members of the Football League in 1882, Burnley have experienced the full spectrum of highs and lows.

The low point was probably in 1986/87 when they found themselves bottom of Division 4 with one game to play, against play-off placed Leyton Orient. Not only that, but the FA had just introduced automatic relegation to and promotion from the Conference League this season. Even a win wouldn't guarantee they stayed up, but stay up they did and it was Lincoln who swapped places with Scarborough. Interestingly, also languishing in the 4th Division at that time were Wolves, Swansea and Cardiff

22 years later and Burnley were in the Premier League..Sadly, and despite an opening day win against Manchester Utd (1-0) and a final day win at Spurs (4-2), what went on in between meant their stay lasted just one season.

You also need to go back to the old 1st Division days to find Towns' last win at Turf Moor, newly promoted Town won 3-2 in November 1970..Town finished 15th and Burnley were relegated that season..

In the subsequent 6 meetings at Burnley, Town have not managed a single win, although you have to go back to February 2001 to find our last visit to Turf Moor, when we lost 0-1 in what was our last season in what is now the Championship.

Our full record at Turf Moor Pld 28 W8 D6 L14 F34 A43

So, to this season..Burnley have slipped from 7th to 12th on the back of a 5 game run without a win. The Current Form Table has them 19th, and Town 20th, both having gained 5 points from their last 6 games...however current home form shows Burnley 17th and away form has Town bottom !

The game is Towns' 'game in hand' and we need points desperately. In fact both clubs need the points for differing reasons, Burnley have slipped to 8 points behind the play off positions and while they still harbor thoughts in that direction, they will be acutely aware that they are a mere 6 points above Town...

Leading the line is 24 goals machine Charlie Austin...with the next highest scorer being Martin Paterson on a mere 5. Austin hasn't notched since a 1st minute strike against Peterbro' 4 games ago ..so he is overdue one . For a small town (80,000 population) Burnley certainly punch above their weight and a dogged midfield of Marney, McCann and Wallace have 21 yellow cards between them just to prove the point.

Ex Watford manager Sean Dyche has a mini crisis on his hands though and they see this game as vital for them to get back on the winning trail.

Mini crisis it may be, but Town have a crisis of major proportions as we have slipped slowly but surely from 2nd to 20th, heading almost inevitably back to League One.

Mark Robins has yet to convince he is the answer after 0-4, 1-6 and dour 0-0 against a very poor Ipswich side on Saturday. Worryingly he sees Theo Robinson as the answer to our dearth of goals and there are rumours he is looking at adding Tate and Hammill to our depleted squad.

Injuries have hit Town with the dream ticket of Vaughan and Beckford turning into a catastrophic misjudgement as both suffered long term injuries.
With Southern still 3 weeks away from a return, and Clayton reportedly having a 'knock' we are scraping the barrell from the stiffs and the Academy.

We know Town can play better than they are doing, and it is extremely frustrating to see them under performing with lack luster and sometimes sheer laziness week after week..

Our destiny lies in the hands of Robins to get the team 'up', find the 4 or 5 wins we probably need to survive what has become a nightmare of a season. As far as I am concerned the jury is still out on Robins but if we can scrape a point from Turf Moor it will at least put us on a two game unbeaten run with a tough away game at Brighton looming up at the week end


I'm going to be optimistic and go for another dour draw, 1-1.

Mark Halsey from Bolton referees the game.

Attendance 11,266 (Town fans 751 )

Goal: Vaughan (55)