Tonight sees Blues make the trip north to play their final game in hand against an Eddie Howe Burnley side that will be bouyant from a 5-1 away hammering of Portsmouth at Fratton Park this weekend.

Burnley FC

Whilst Burnley did what Blues couldn’t do recently and beat Pompey at Fratton, their form hasn’t been of the best. The Pompey win is their only one in the last six Championship games and Burnley have only won twice in the last two months; a stretch of eleven second tier games. That being said, Burnley’s home form isn’t too bad for a team lying sixteenth; six wins and seven draws in nineteen games at Turfmoor has ensured the Clarets haven’t been pulled into a relegation dogfight.

Martin Paterson will miss the game against Blues after injuring his hamstring against Pompey and joins Jay Rodriguez on the sidelines; however former Swindon man Charlie Austin will be more than happy to fill in the breech having scored a hat-trick on Saturday. Defenders Ben Mee and Danny Lafferty are doubts for the game with Mee suffering a back spasm on Saturday and Lafferty missing the last couple of games with a tight hamstrings.

Blues

Chris Hughton has named an unchanged squad for the trip to Burnley with defensive trio Stephen Carr, Jonathan Spector and Pablo Ibanez all remaining on the sidelines. Keith Fahey is still struggling with a knock and will remain out meaning a likely continuation of the N’Daw-Mutch midfield partnership.

Curtis Davies remains on a tightrope knowing that one more yellow card in either this game or the game against Palace at the weekend will result in a suspension under totting up rules – and with none of the injured defenders fully expected to return for Saturday a booking could make things very tricky then.

With the results of the weekend I don’t think this game is as much of a “must win” as the one over Donny was; however a return to back to back wins in the Championship for the first time since January would be a welcome return to form at the right time. I think the game promises goals – Blues haven’t kept a clean sheet in nine games in the second tier but in the same period they haven’t failed to score in any game. So that’s a 0-0 draw then, I guess?

Tags: Burnley FC, Curtis Davies, Jonathan Spector, Keith Fahey, Pablo Ibanez, Stephen Carr