By TheLongside.co.uk
March 10 2006

Can Burnley pick up their first points in four games this Saturday? The Longside brings you the team news for the weekend fixture against Derby County at Pride Park.

Derby County v Burnley

  

Burnley welcome back a number of players ahead of the away clash at Pride Park this Saturday. Strikers Gifton Noel-Williams and Michael Ricketts are expected to return from injury and illness respectively, while the midfield will also be given a boost thanks to the return to fitness of Garreth O'Connor and possibly Graham Branch.

Derby will hand a debut to midfielder Michael McIndoe, signed from Doncaster Rovers on loan until the end of the season to add to current loan signings Alan Wright, Mounir El Hamdaoui and Kevin Lisbie. Derby have been at it all season with the loan signings, and it reminds you of the Peter Reid era at Leeds when a large proportion of the squad was made up of loanees.

Former Claret loanee Peter Whittingham, Stern John, and Dexter Blackstock are just a few of the other names who have served loan periods at Pride Park this season. No wonder the Derby fans are protesting when there is absolutley no stability, and with the club millions in debt.

Derby are sweating on the fitness of Kevin Lisbie, Darren Moore, Inigo Idiakez and Tomasz Hajto, who will all have late fitness tests, but full-back Richard Jackson is definitely ruled out with a hamstring problem.

It's touch and go for players for both teams which certainly makes the team line-ups difficult to predict for tomorrow. Let's hope though that Burnley return to at least playing players in their normal positions and not see the farcical situation last weekend where poor old Michael Duff had to play up-front.

Luckily a number of players look like they will return and hopefully we will see the same kind of attitude the Clarets showed in the first-half of the FA Cup game at Pride Park back in early January. We really have to start picking points up, it's just 1 win in 11 games now in the league, and we need to get to the 50 point mark as soon as possible which will certainly see us safe.

Special thanks to Tim Rigby for the images.