Friday 1 March 2013

Burnley at the Valley

Burnley come calling tomorrow.

I know next to nothing about them so I really don't know what to expect.

When I think of them, I think of a club who have a wonderful history.
The old Turf Moor was a ground we'd all heard of when I was growing up, even if the precise location of Burnley could have been anywhere Up North between Glasgow and Watford as far as we knew.

Despite a brief flirtation with the Premier league, nowadays Burnley as a town is more likely to feature in one of those dodgy late night television programmes, fronted by a professional haircut with a speech impediment, discussing Britain's 'hardest' pubs or vigilante gangs.

Alastair Campbell is a Burnley supporter.
 I've no idea if he's planning on a few sharpeners at the Rose of Denmark tomorrow but I'd be interested to meet him.
Regardless of his politics, I've always found him to be an engaging and passionate speaker and I was particularly moved by his documentary when he came clean about his alcoholism.
* on second thoughts, the sharpeners might be a bad idea.

The only other useless facts I've picked up over the years about Burnley are:
1. The lowest priced property in our country is in Burnley.
2. At one time, the largest charity shop in our country was in Burnley.
3. Television girl cop show Juliet Bravo was filmed in the town.
4. The French liqueur Benedictine has a remarkable following in the town. I remember hearing that more of the stuff is drunk there than in any other territory.
5. Apparently Burnley has the highest proportion of people who bother to turn up at their home games compared to the population of the town.
I'd argue that towns in the provinces will obviously score higher on this - (I bet Charlton Athletic score highly compared to the population of Charlton Village)- but well done to Burnley anyway, I'm pleased their club is important to their town.

I've made it clear that I know next to nothing about our visitors and I don't know what to expect from them.
Unfortunately, I can say the same thing about the current Charlton side.

Yes, I spend quite a proportion of my non working time thinking about the Addicks, (alright, yes, and some of the time when I should be working), but do I know what to expect from Charlton?

Nope.

We know our Bretagne Battler Yann Kermorgant won't be up front but who will be?
Will Haynes be starting? Will he be with Fuller? Will we revert to 4-4-2 ?

Last week Charlton were given a bit of a footballing lesson.

Nottingham Forest could have given us a spanking and we were extremely fortunate to keep the score to a 2 goal deficit.
Chris Powell and the team will be desperate to give the long suffering Valley crowd a decent performance.
Which Charlton is going to turn up?

If we do concede first, let's remember the Cardiff game when the crowd carried on cheering and roared the team on to a famous victory.

COYA.

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