Bring on the Bastards

It's here, the build up to the first Burnley Blackburn derby in four years is well under way, the first in the top flight for over forty years. This game was top of my list when the fixtures came out, the moment when we can finally face Rovers as fully fledged Premier League equals.

In the FA Cup clash of 2005 and the face offs in the Championship Rovers always had the financial edge with their Premier League bank balance and parachute payments. But none of that matters this time as Owen Coyle has assembled a squad that as a true football team can beat Blackburn on any day of the week.


Not being old enough to see the last Burnley win over Blackburn in 1979, my first real experience of the derby was back in the 2000/01 season where both sides met in the Championship. The “battle of Turf Moor” may have been lost but the sight of David Dunn being sent flying by Kevin Ball was a small moment to savour and has already been resvisited a few times on YouTube this week. The return game at Ewood saw us lose five nil in what was the most depressing journey home I’ve ever made from a game; whilst the FA Cup fifth round tie in 2005 saw us lose 2-1 despite a brilliant goal from Micah Hyde and some of the wildest celebrations over a single strike I’ve ever seen.

Stories from the distant past fill me with hope of what I could be experiencing come Sunday's final whistle. My favourite being a tale from the last time the two sides met in the top flight on New Years Day in 1966. Burnley won the game two nil in a victory that saw a Rovers fan being laid out by Burnley keeper Adam Blacklaw as he ran onto the pitch towards the Clarets’ stopper. Towards the end of that game, many will remember Ralph Coates cheekily sitting on the ball in the dying moments as Burnley cruised to victory. Those were happy moments shared by those slightly older than me, all I have is bitterness and resentment following the three defeats I’ve seen and I’m more than ready to taste our new moment of glory.

Prior to kick off next week the Burnley fans will have been bused into Ewood Park by the coach load. A lot has been said about the draconian police measures and loss of human rights etc that our fans must endure. I don’t want to say anymore about that, although I do feel sorry for any Claret not living locally who can’t make the game because of it. Sadly that’s the way it has to be for now and the game must take priority.

The compulsory coaches must now be used a positive and add to the atmosphere of the day. Three thousand Clarets traveling in convoy down the M65 into opposition territory will give us an edge. By the time the players arrive and are ready to warm up there may already be a stand full of clarets waiting for them in good voice in the Darwen End. For the Burnley players it will be a sign of encouragement and hopefully the sight Claret and Blue will add fear and take some of the edge off home advantage for the Rovers players.

The danger man for Blackburn will be David Dunn, who I can actually say without the need for gritted teeth that despite being a crock is a wonderful footballer; unfortunately for us, he is injury free and enjoying a good season playing in the hole.

Although, while I can point to Dunn, I can also look at more than one man in Claret and Blue who is likely to cause Rovers serious problems. If Wade Elliot can continue to drift into play like he did against Birmingham and pick the ball up in a variety of dangerous positions he will hurt Rovers. There’s also Steven Fletcher and David Nugent who are forging an exciting partnership and together will cause the Blackburn defence a whole host of problems. While who can forget our little magician Robbie Blake? In Blakey we have a player who can turn a game in an instant, particularly with his ability from set pieces. And oh how I’ve dreamt of a trademark Blake free kick winning this game for us.

The Andre Bikey and Graham Alexander partnership in midfield will hopefully add the steel we’ve been missing away from home and be more than enough to cope with Rover’s combative style. While the back five will all need to be at their best to deal with the long ball’s and throws that caused us problem in our opening day defeat to Stoke.

There is a slight worry that the referee won't be strong enough to withstand the home advantage and the ballaching of Big Sam, who whenever I've seen him speak would rather point to refereeing frailties than his sides defensive ones. Let’s just hope our attacking style can exploit plenty of the latter come Sunday.

An interesting stat sees Blackburn one victory ahead of us in terms of head to head clashes, something which doing the double over them this season would reverse nicely.

In the last couple of weeks Blackburn Rovers have released a t-shirt reminding their fans that they beat us five nil back in 2001. It’s apparently being sold alongside “a DVD called Bring On The Clarets, as part of a range called ‘get ready for the Clarets’.” While they may want to tell their fans what this game is all about for a very reasonable retail price, over at Turf Moor those gimmicks are not needed.

There’s no smugness or expectancy of an easy victory; all we have is a pure and unadulterated desire to put one over on our enemy and be the ones walking out of Ewood Park next Sunday as the best team in East Lancashire.