By Longsider
October 26 2004

Its the Carling Cup tonight with the Clarets set to face Aston Villa at Turf Moor in the 3rd Round of the competition. The tie is a reward for beating Bury and Wolves in the previous rounds.

The club will be hoping for a much bigger crowd than the 5013 who turned up against Wolves in the last round. The visitors are sure to bring a sizeable away folllowing and we can only hope that as many Clarets as possible can make the game tonight.

The match will be the first between the two sides since 1976 when Burnley drew with the Villa, 2-2 at the Turf, back in the old First Division. Burnley were relegated at the end of that season and our paths haven't crossed since then.

The Carling Cup is often a competition which some of the bigger teams take less seriously however Villa do not fall into this bracket and will field their strongest side tonight. Last season they got to the Semi Final before Bolton and Jay-Jay Okocha, in particular, sent them crashing out of the cup.

Villa will have to make changes to the side that beat Fulham on Saturday with England International Darius Vassell out for 3 months with a broken ankle. The injury to Vassell should mean that Carlton Cole will partner Juan-Pablo Angel upfront. Gareth Barry and Martin Laursen will also miss the match through injury.

The Clarets will be without Frank Sinclair who misses the match after picking up a 5th booking of the season against Coventry. Ian Moore is also out after having surgery on his knee yesterday so it is likely that Tony Grant will come back into the side after being on the bench for the last two games. Richard Duffy is here for another month but it is unclear whether he will be allowed to play in the match tonight.

Burnley fans wishing to attend the game tonight will be able to pay on the gate with normal league prices applying.