This weekend sees an old rivalry revived as Bolton Wanderers visit the Turf in our final pre-season friendly before the squad fly out to their training camp in Italy. Big Sam Allardyce brings his team of international superstars to Burnley for a game that through the years has witnessed some cracking encounters.

Who can forget the 2-2 draw at the Turf in the 1994/95 season? The Clarets had won just two games all season as Bruce Rioch brought his side to Burnley in October. An extremely bad-tempered affair ensued, and no doubt every Burnley fan there, and even Bolton fan for that matter will still remember the game.

Bolton led the game 1-0 at half time, but a second half fight-back from the Clarets saw us take a 2-1 lead through goals from Steve Davis and John Deary. Bolton defender Nicky Spooner then received the ball on the halfway line, and a bad touch allowed John Gayle all the invitation he needed to commit one of the worst fouls surely seen in Turf Moor history.

Needless to say, Spooner suffered a horribly broken leg that kept him out of the game for some two years. Jason Lydiate was then sent off for a reckless challenge, before Burnley put the ball out of play for another Bolton player to receive treatment. As was now the nature of the game, John McGinlay refused to throw the ball back to Burnley, and sure enough, that piece of bad sportsmanship led to an equaliser on his debut for Simon Coleman. The air in the Longside turned blue to say the least, but what a game it was.

Another memorable game, for Burnley fans at least, was in the 2000/01 season, as we played our first game for five years in this division following our promotion at Scunthorpe. First game – Bolton away, excellent. Bolton had just failed the season before in the play-offs to reach the Premiership, and we had just been promoted, the odds were surely stacked against us… but Glen Little had other ideas.

Over 5,000 Burnley fans packed the South Stand lower and upper tiers at the Reebok, hoping for any kind of result to kick start the new campaign in the higher division. Sure enough, the Clarets delivered. Bolton took the lead through Per Frandsen, after an Ian Cox foul on Isiah Rankin. Frandsen confidently tucked away the resultant penalty to give the Trotters the lead.

The second half though saw the arrival of Super Glen, who was not fit to start, and the game turned on its head. Glen tormented Bolton into submission, and it was his cross that saw Phil Gray (yes, Phil Gray) stoop to place a good header past Jussi Jaaskelainen. Our first game in the big league had seen us take a deserved point against one of the league’s fancied sides. What a start.

Back to this weekend though and it will be the likes of Kevin Nolan, Jared Borgetti, Stellios Giannakopoulos and Ivan Campo heading to the Turf, as well as Quinton Fortune who is currently training with Bolton. Allardyce has said that if he can prove his fitness in this game, the deal to sign Fortune will be as good as done and dusted.

For the Clarets, Michael Duff will once again sit out after missing the game at Bury with a slight thigh strain. Cotterill believes that sitting out the Bolton game will allow Duff more time for recovery ahead of the new season. It’s too early again for Danny Coyne, but otherwise, as at Bury we will be at full strength.

Now what was that song we used to sing about them?

Altogether now…

Ohhhhh…