The waiting's over

It’s strange to think that when the Premier League was formed on the 20th February 1992 that Burnley were well on their way to being crowned champions of the old division four. Since then promotions under Jimmy Mullen, Stan Ternent and Owen Coyle have brought us to the present day, where we’re all but 24 hours away from opening our campaign as Premier League Burnley Football Club.

The transformation has been remarkable, seven years prior to winning the league in ’92 we were a game against Leyton Orient away from dropping out of the Football League completely. And now tomorrow, 83 days after sealing promotion at Wembley our newest top flight chapter begins away at Stoke after a 33 year absence.

While not screaming of Premier League glamour the Potters are instead a familiar old foe from throughout our history, which most recently have been our shared days in the Championship and the old division two.

Owen Coyle began his management of the club with a goalless draw against Stoke at the Turf back in November 2007, while many Claret’s will still have Ally Pickering’s wonder strike in a 4-1 victory at the Britannia which virtually assured our Division Two status during Stan Ternent’s first season in the Turf Moor hot-seat firmly etched in the memory.

One hundred and one years earlier at the end of the 1897/98 season a game between the two founder members of the football league resulted in the introduction of today’s familiar automatic promotion/relegation system. This was after a “Test Match” playoff between first division Stoke and second division Burnley ended goalless in a game described as “the match without a shot at goal”.

Expect no similar stalemate tomorrow as Owen Coyle brings his exciting and open brand of football to England’s top flight. There is no doubt that Burnley will not settle to make up the numbers in the Premier League, our manager insists he will stick to getting the ball down on the floor and attacking the opposition.

The squad that finished last season has been boosted by record signing Steven Fletcher who has been brought down from Scotland to get us goals, while the exciting Fernando Guerrero will assist the likes of Robbie Blake, Chris Eagles, Wade Elliot and Chris McCann in creating them.

Meanwhile other summer incumbents Richard Eckersley, Brian Easton and David Edgar will add youth and exuberance to the backline, while Tyrone Mears at 26 will bring a tad of experience. There is also the prospective transfer of Cameroon giant Andre Bikey from Reading who, if it goes through, will add steel to what a times can look a shaky backline.

Given this, it’s unsurprising that the lack of centre half cover is our main worry for tomorrow’s opener. With Michael Duff and David Edgar already unavailable, skipper Steven Caldwell is now described as a “massive doubt” due to a groin injury picked up in his midweek exploits with Scotland.

Even with Caldwell’s unlikely presence Stoke’s direct style of play will be difficult for us to match. An impressive 12th place finish last season was achieved by a footballing blitzkrieg; when Tony Pulis wasn’t content with his players hoofing long balls into the opponent’s box, Rory Delap was given the task of lobbing them in with his monstrous throw-ins. Either way, their arial assaults were fierce and clinical in nature, especially with the likes of James Beattie waiting to punish opposition defences.

Another thing Stoke have in their favour is their fans. With regular 28,000 sell outs at the Britannia last season, the club’s faithful has done the commendable job of transforming one of football’s new builds into an intimidating caldron of noise, a throwback to the atmosphere of the terraces.

We are under no illusions that there will be no easy games this season; thirty eight cup finals await before our day of destiny next May.

Nobody would have thought that after a 4-1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day of last season that 60 games later we’d have been dancing out of Wembley as Play off Champions. So win, lose or draw tomorrow it will be an incredibly proud moment to see the players of Burnley Football Club take to the pitch tomorrow back in the big time.