Gillingham Preview

By Longsider
February 6 2004

Burnley take on Gillingham in the league tomorrow in a re-run of the Cup encounter a fortnight ago. The Clarets will be looking to keep up the recent good performances that have seen the side remain unbeaten in 2004.

Burnley will be searching for their first league win in two months tomorrow when they take on Gillingham. The Gills were soundly beaten the other week in the cup but they will be fielding a stronger team this time and should put up a better fight than they did in the cup.

The league fixture back in August saw Burnley win with considerable ease and end our rotten run of results at Priestfield. The Clarets have also won the last couple of fixtures at Turf Moor against the Gills even more comfortably than the victory back in August.

We beat them 2-0 last Easter Saturday with the goals coming from Gareth Taylor and Drissa Diallo. We won by the same scoreline in 2002 with Kevin Ball and David Johnson getting the goals. It hasn't always been plain sailing against the Gills with them winning 3-0 in our promotion season as well as the 'infamous' 0-5 defeat when Bob Taylor got all 5 goals.

Burnley will be without the best player at the club tomorrow with Robbie Blake missing the game due to picking up 5 yellow cards this season. Paul Weller will probably be back in the squad after resuming training this week whilst Arthur Gnohere is still out with his hamstring problem.

I would assume that Neil Wood will be pushed further up the pitch to replace Robbie so that would mean a space on the left hand side. Graham Branch, Luke Chadwick and Alan Moore would all fit the bill but i expect Stan to give a debut to Bradley Orr.

As i mentioned at the top of the page the Gills will look a completely different outfit tomorrow with Tommy Johnson and John Hills both suspended. Recent signing Patrick Agyemang, who was cup-tied, will start and will play with Henderson up front. Jason Brown is expected to start in the goals tomorrow with Rod Wallace probably taking a place ont he bench. Former Burnley defender Ian Cox looks likely to miss the game with his ankle still causing him problems. Jason Brown

Predicted Burnley Team:-
Jensen, Roche, Camara, May, McGregor, Little, Chaplow, Grant, Orr, Wood, Moore(I).

Subs:- Weller, West, Chadwick, Branch and Rachubka.

The referee for the game:-
Paul Danson(Leicestershire)