Burnley v Norwich City

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By TheLongside.co.uk
March 28 2006

The Longside previews the televised clash with Norwich City at Turf Moor on Friday night, with new signing Alan Mahon expected to start.

New signing Alan Mahon will make his debut in the clash with Norwich City on Friday night, and it's a debut in front of the Sky cameras for the former Blackburn Rovers, Sporting Lisbon and Wigan Athletic midfielder.

It is the Clarets' first appearance on television since our 1-0 home victory over Hull City back in October, a win that took us up to 11^th place. It was the beginning of a run that saw us win 7 of our next 10 games and took us to the dizzy heights of 5^th place on Boxing Day. Unfortunately, our next game was against this Friday’s opponents Norwich. The defeat at Carrow Road on the 28^th December was the beginning of the awful run that we are still on that has seen us fall to 18^th.

The Clarets flew to Carrow Road for the midweek game just two days after our 1-0 victory over Stoke City. We lost 2-1 and since then we gave won just one game out of a possible thirteen. This was the game when Steve Cotterill reverted to the 5-3-2 formation that saw Thomas, Sinclair and McGreal take up the centre-back positions and saw a Burnley defence looking very shaky. Simon Charlton and Darren Huckerby (surprise, surprise) were the goal-scorers for Norwich, making the most of some sloppy Burnley defending. The Clarets consolation was credited as a Yousef Saffri own goal, but in truth should have been credited to Jon Harley.

Onto the team then, and the Clarets will be expected to hand home debuts to new boys Phil Bardsley, Andy Gray and Alan Mahon. Frank Sinclair is expected to return after recovering from a calf injury, while Micah Hyde and John McGreal face late fitness tests.

Norwich are at full strength with the exception of Paul McVeigh who is suffering with a back injury, and Mathieu Louis Jean who is out for the remainder of the season.

It's sure to be an interesting game for us, with options coming in the way of the new recruits, and uncertainty over the injuries of McGreal, Hyde and Sinclair, so the starting eleven is anyone's guess. We certainly are starting to look stronger squadwise, but let's hope that tonight, in front of the Sky cameras, we can get back to winning ways and finally eradicate any worries over relegation.

Come on you Clarets.