Manager: Brian Laws Owner: Barry Kilby Ground Name: Turf Moor Capacity: 22,546 Last Season Prediction: N/A Last Season Position Relegated from Premiership Official Web Site: burnleyfootballclub.co.uk All Time Top Scorer George Beel (178)

The Manager

Brian Laws Brian Laws started his management career at Grimsby Town in 1994, he was initially successful, but deteriorated after he clashed with Grimsby player Ivano Bonetti. Laws reportedly threw a plate of chicken wings at the Italian following a 3-2 defeat at Luton Town in February 1996. Laws was sacked by Grimsby after a poor start to the 96-97 season. He then had a short spell as a player with Darlington before taking charge of Scunthorpe United. At Scunthorpe Laws achieved promotion twice, in 1999 and 2005 respectively. He was sacked by the club in March 2004 but was reinstated three weeks later, leading them to promotion the following season. After nearly 10 years at Scunthorpe Laws left the club in November 2006 to take over the manager's job at Sheffield Wednesday. He did a good job keeping them up in his first season and comfortbaly clear of relegation for two years but he was sacked last year as the club began to slip into trouble. He became Burnley manager in January, a move that shocked many and he lost 15 of his 18 Premiership games, winning just twice. He is an experienced manager but many remain unsure if he is the right man to take Burnley back to the Premiership.

Burnley had a season to remember last time out as they got a crack at the Premier League. Owen Coyle made them an attractive side in the Championship and he continued that in the top division opting to attack teams with mixed results.

At home they were a tough nut to crack beating Manchester United 1-0 in their first home game and the good home form continued with wins over Everton, Sunderland and Birmingham.
On the road they were less impressive and suffered heavy defeats at Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea.

They did shock millionaires Manchester City by taking a two goal lead at the City of Manchester Stadium and ended up grabbing a late equalsier in a six goal thriller. They were good to watch but struggled to pick up points on the road, a 5-3 defeat at West Ham summing up their attacking intent and their defensive frailties.

When Owen Coyle left the club in December they looked quite secure around mid table but that was mostly due to the home form which began to drop under new boss Brian Laws.

They slipped into relegation trouble and despite a rare away win at Hull they couldn't find enough points to survive a run of three defeats in a row ended their Premiership life after one season. They did finish on a high though with a thumping 4-2 win over fourth placed Tottenham.

Daniel Fox

Daniel Fox is an exciting full back who can also play as a left winger. He is a good defender who arrived from Celtic in January but could do little to avert the clubs slide down the table.

In the Championship though he will prove a key player for them. He has a brilliant left foot which can conjure up chances from the left flank.

His set pieces set him apart from others though, he can deliver some dangerous corners from either flank and his free kicks from any angle are a real goal threat.

In a team which has some real physical presence up front his delivery from the left will be a real weapon for Burnley and one which Brian Laws hopes will see them return to the Premiership at the first time of asking.

Burnley have kept hold of most of their squad that were promoted two years ago so they will be hopeful of making an immediate return to the Premiership. Brian Laws was a strange choice as manager but he has experience of this division and will certainly get them working hard for each other.

They are a side that still has plenty of quality, they may lose Chris Eagles before the season starts but still have McCann and Marney plus some excellent strikers in Iwelumo, Patterson and Jay Rodriguez. They still have a pretty solid looking defence for this level but perhaps lack that spark of creativity in midfield that can elevate them to the next level.

I think they are a little short of being able to challenge for the top two but they have more than enough about them to push for a playoff position again and will be one of a number of clubs in the shake up for that date at Wembley next May.

Burnley changed their colours from green to the claret and sky blue of Aston Villa, the most successful club in England at the time, for the 1910-11 season.

The 1912-13 season saw them win promotion to the First Division once more, as well as reaching the FA Cup semi-final, only to lose to Sunderland. The next season was one of consolidation in the top flight, but more importantly their first major honour, the FA Cup, won 1-0 in the last final played at Crystal Palace against Liverpool.

This cup final was historic in that King George V became the first reigning monarch to present the cup to the winning captain.

Dave Thomas is perhaps the most famous player to have played for both clubs. Dave joined QPR from Burnley in the early 1970's.

Dave Thomas made his debut at home to Sunderland. Rangers won 3-2, but for the next four games Thomas was so ineffective that they dropped him for the Portsmouth game. Jago then brought him back for the next game at home to Oxford and played him on the left wing.

As he was right footed it seemed a ridiculous thing to do. Slowly he settled down in this position. By the turn of the year he began looking like a good player and was starting to score. From February onwards he ran riot down the left flank and in a period of 16 games Rangers scored 33 goals and six of which were scored by Thomas.

This helped Q.P.R to get promoted to the top division for the second time in their history.

During a game at Wolves, when Parkes threw the ball to Thomas who ran the length of the field, crossed it to Stan Bowles and he put it in the back of the net. This was shown on T.V over and over again as the ball went from goal to goal in about 10 seconds.

It wasn't long before he was in the England international side. In a two-year period (1975-1976) he won his 8 caps. Again had he been with a bigger club he probably would have got more. Dave Thomas was an integral part of probably Rangers best ever side. His crossing, corners, pace and his shooting from distance were all part of his all round game.

Former England goalkeeper Chris Woods has played for both sides over the years. Woods joined QPR for £250,000 in 1980 although he had never played a first team game at Nottingham Forest. He had two good years at QPR before joining Norwich in 1982 and eventually going on to star for Sheffield Wednesday. He was Englands number two during the 1980's and got his chance when Peter Shilton retired. He ended his career at Burnley in 1998.

Of the current sides Clarke Carlisle will line up against QPR having played for us a few years back. Clarke was a popular defender at QPR but hasn't had the best of relationships since he left due to some his antics when playing against Rangers.

QPR have a pretty dire record at Turf Moor and have won just once their since 1980.

In recent years the two sides met at Loftus Road in the 2000/01 season and it was a dire performance from QPR. A mistake by Lee Harper allowed Jon Mullins to score the only goal of the game.

Burnley deserved the win with a hard working performance and any pre season optimism that still existed that October afternoon was all but dead by the end of that game.

Rangers fans began to realise we were in a relegation battle and the first calls for Gerry Francis to go followed this defeat.

The second meeting of the two sides coincided with my birthday so a weekend in Blackpool made the fixture a bit more exciting for me. By then Rangers were in huge relegation trouble and every week seemed to be a must win game which QPR usually lost.

Ian Holloway was looking for his first win in charge that day and sadly he didn't get it.

A very poor first half display saw Rangers go 2-0 down and Chris Kiwomya produced one of his worst displays in a QPR shirt. We had chances though through Peter Crouch and Leon Knight which gave us some hope and the second half saw a massive turn around.

New signing Marcus Bignot grabbed his first goal for the club and Rangers played some excellent football and showed some real fighting qualities to fight back.

Still a lack of killer instinct up front cost us but those few hundred of us who left Turf Moor were disappointed with the result but saw real hope ahead with the performance.

The 2004/05 saw Burnley arrive at Loftus Road doing well in the league but injuries hit for the trip to QPR and with Rangers in top form we blew them away early with goals from Gallen, Santos and Furlong in the first half an hour. It could have been more by the end but a 3-0 win moved Rangers into the top four.

When the return match came around neither side had anything but pride to play for and it was Rangers turn for an injury crisis. The match at Turf Moor saw five players make their first team debuts among them Shabazz Baidoo and Pat Kanyuka.

The squad was stretched to the limit and Richard Edghill started the game in midfield. Ade Akinbyi grabbed two goals to give the home side the three points in a game of very few positives for QPR.

The two sides met at the start of 2006 with Mccan giving the visitors an early lead with a well taken goal. Gareth Ainsworth grabbed an equaliser but the game was possibly more memorable for the male streakers at the end of the game rather than the football.

The away game was ot much better with Burnley winning a dull game 1-0 as Gary Waddock looked at different players with both sides safe from relegation.

The 2006/07 season opened at Turf Moor with Gary Waddock giving several players including Nick Ward, Adam Czerkas and Damion Stewart their debuts. Rangers were pretty poor though and lost the game thanks to two goals from Steve Jones. A friend of mine who went to the game told me days later he left the game after the second goal and felt certain we would be relegated so it sounded less than impressive.

The home game was a different story though as Gregory tired out his 3-4-3 formation worked a treat as Lee Cook ran riot scoring an early goal which was added to by Blackstock and Lomas in an impressive victory. The game also saw Danny Cullip and Adam Bolder make home debuts for the club and they would go on to play a big role in keeping us in the division.

The 2007/08 season saw Rangers grab a first win at Turf Moor since 1980. The game was due to be played in August but was called off due to the death of Ray Jones and the match was rearranged in December.

Luigi De Canio took his side North and on a tough night his side took the lead through Damion Stewart. It looked like Burnley would grab a point near the end before a corner was cleared and with the Burnley keeper going forward Rowan Vine had a clear run on goal and passed the ball into the empty net.

The return game probably ended our faint chances of the playoffs. Gavin Mahon scored his first goal for QPR to give us the lead before Patrick Agyemang made it seven goals in six games to put us 2-0 up. The game looked dead but no one told Andrew Cole who scored one before half time and went on to complete a hat trick in an amazing comeback.

The last season the two sides were in the same division we met four times and were sick of the site of each other by the end of it. Burnley travelled to Loftus Road just days after a cup win at Chelsea, I remember getting the train back from our visit to Manchester United with some Burnley fans who were looking forward to a few day sin London. It was an eventful week for them as despite a goal from Dexter Blackstock the visitors impressed and went on to win the game by two goals to one.

We met again in the third round of the FA Cup which turned out ot be one of many dire games that season, a goalless draw and in truth nothing happened. The replay saw a young QPR team go North and made a decent fist of it after Samuel Di Carmine gave QPR the lead. This was QPR though and the FA Cup so not a chance of victory in truth, Burnley equalised then scored a winner in the last minute of extra time, a cruel end to a decent performance.

Burnley made it three wins out of four against us at the end of the season as for the second time Gareth Ainsworth lined up as manager against them, Burnley ran out comfortable 1-0 winners thanks to a Clarke Carlisle goal.

Click on the match for a report of the game from this web site.