Stoke City v Burnley

This weekend sees the Clarets travel to the Britannia Stadium to face the draw specialists, Stoke City. Stoke currently occupy 15^th place in the Championship, having drawn five of their opening seven games.

They have won just one game so far, beating Derby County in front of a healthy 20,013 crowd at the Britannia Stadium immediately after losing their opening game 1-0 to newly promoted Southend on the opening day down at Roots Hall.

Since then they have drawn all five games, although these have included a point against current table-toppers Birmingham City and a decent point at Luton. They did though last weekend throw three points away after leading at Oakwell, only for Barnsley to score two goals in three minutes late on to take a share of the spoils.

Tony Pulis is once again the man in charge at Stoke, having left the club in June 2005, only to return a year later following the departure of Johan Boskamp. It is hardly a popular appointment though by the Stoke board, with many fans unhappy with the kind of football that they will see under Pulis.

Pulis is well known throughout football for his, shall we say, ‘defensive’ approach to football, with one Stoke supporter on the fantastic ‘Oatcake’ fans site summing up Pulis’ two spells by saying, “He is the only manager in 30 years of following Stoke that has made me not want to go”. Strong words indeed.

Despite Stoke’s slow start, Pulis has made a few good signings since re-joining the club, with former Portsmouth striker Vincent Pericard joining, who will surely prove to be a very good player at this level. He has moved to the Potteries along with former Preston North End striker Ricardo Fuller, a decent signing on paper, although there are doubts over his overall fitness.

Fuller though is expected to make his debut for Stoke tomorrow against the Clarets, so we may want to think again before booing him, we all know what happened when Jemal Johnson was booed against Wolves. Vincent Pericard is expected to miss out due to a hamstring injury, and could be replaced by Sammy Bangoura, who has apparently decided to finally return to Stoke after having gone AWOL last week.

The Clarets are again without Danny Coyne as he continues his recovery from his knee injury, and the only doubt otherwise is Alan Mahon who was withdrawn on Tuesday night to be replaced by the free-scoring Gifton Noel-Williams (!).

Last season saw home domination as the Clarets beat Stoke on the Turf on Boxing Day through an Ade Akinbiyi winner which took us up to fifth, whilst Stoke won the return game 1-0 in a poor game which saw the Clarets give debuts to Andy Gray and Manchester United’s David Bardsley.

After Gifton’s performance on Tuesday it feels as though we again have another new signing, and it will be interesting to see whether or not Steve Cotterill decides to go with the former Stoke man to partner Andy Gray up front. Gifton will surely be up for the game and it will also be interesting to see which Gifton Noel-Williams turns up.

We have been somewhat inconsistent so far this term, yet we find ourselves sitting pretty in sixth position. Imagine where we could be should we win at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday. Nosebleeds all round I reckon, let’s do it!

Come on you Clarets.

Photography: Tim Rigby