Ipswich Town Preview

By Longsider
February 20 2004

Burnley are about to embark on a difficult run of fixtures. First up are Ipswich, who are currently 4th in the table, who come to Turf Moor looking to maintain their good away form.

Burnley host Ipswich at Turf Moor tomorrow looking to avenge the 6-1 mauling we received at Portman Road back in October. Its very unlikely that there will be a repeat of the scoreline with most of the Burnley squad fit unlike the side we took to Ipswich. A flu bug had swept through the camp and laid off a couple of players to the extent that we had Graham Branch and Lee Roche as our centre half pairing.

It was a bad night though for the Clarets with us conceding 4 first half goals in the space of ten minutes. Richard Chaplow put through his own net to make it 5 by half time. The second half was a little better with Delroy Facey grabbing a goal before Kuqi restored the 5 goal cushion at the end of the match.

This fixture produced an entertaining game of football last season with Robbie Blake earning the Clarets a point with a second half penalty kick. Earlier on last season Burnley had produced one of their best display's of the season when Dimi Papadopoulous got an injury time equaliser to give us a deserved share of the points in a 2-2 draw. These games were the first to be played against Ipswich for almost 30 years and our last victory against the Tractor Boys came in 1974.

Its highly likely that Burnley will use the same 16 man squad that travelled to Millwall last week. Arthur Gnohere has now gone to QPR and Graham Branch is still out with his calf injury. Its highly likeley that Stan will make changes to the side following our poor display at Millwall and i expect Bradley Orr to make his debut with him replacing Neil Wood.

Ipswich come to Burnley with an 18 man squad and Drissa Diallo is in the squad. Diallo was one of only 2 players offered a contract in the Summer but he was offered a better deal by Ipswich and signed for them instead of the Clarets. Diallo had a big impact at Burnley and was sorely missed when he left in the Summer. The last time Diallo was spotted he was on his backside when he made a bad mistake for a goal that Ipswich conceded against Wigan the other week in the televised game. According to reports in Suffolk it looks as though Richard Naylor and John McGreal will probably start at the centre of the defence.

Predicted Burnley Side:-
Jensen, Roche, May, McGregor, Camara, Little, Grant, Chaplow, Orr, Blake, I.Mooore

Subs:- Wood, Weller, A.Moore, Chadwick and Rachubka

Referee is Mike Dean(Cheshire)