As promised, we are back again to give you your weekly helping of the popular feature Trash Talk. This week of course we move upstairs to talk to a Prem fan with our FA Cup clash on the agenda with Burnley, and we are delighted to welcome 68-year-old Tony Scholes who is a member of the Burnley FC Supporters Group and has kindly answered our FA Cup themed questions.
We would like to thank Tony for his contribution and wish him and Burnley well for the remainder of the season.
Can you tell us something about your club that a general football fan might not know?
We are a club with a rich history and founder members of the Football League in 1888. We’ve won the Football League twice; we have been champions of all four divisions and been as low as 92nd.
Maybe not many will be aware that, after Manchester United and Wolves, we were just the third English club to play in the European Cup.
How is Covid 19 impacting on your club and its future?
It’s impacting on our club, every club, and the world. It’s something I’m sure none of us ever thought we would live through something like this and football becomes a low priority.
I think we have benefited because of our recent years in the Premier League and being prudent but it’s the small non-league clubs I worry about to be honest. The Premier League clubs will take care of themselves.
How is your season going so far, and does it meet your pre-season expectations?
Up and down is the phrase but for us this season has been down and up. It started with us winning just one point in the first six games at a time when we had so many injuries, we were counting the players to see if we had enough for a game.
Game number seven was a draw and since then we’ve lost just twice, an annual beating at Manchester City and a referee created win for Leeds this week.
Things are set to change at Burnley very soon and it could be even before you publish this with an American takeover all but done. It will be different; our club has always been owned and run by local people previously. We will see what happens.
Burnley has a bit of history in the FA Cup, can you tell us about a memorable game in this competition?
We’ve won it just once and that was 107 years ago so I can’t tell you too much about that other than we beat Liverpool 1-0 at Crystal Palace with the goal scored by Bert Freeman.
I was at Wembley for the 1962 final with my Dad, but we lost that, so that one is out of the question.
We’ve played you just once in the FA Cup back in 2010 and that was memorable because our manager walked out before the post match press conference and we never saw him again.
I’ve gone for our 3rd round game at Derby in 1999/2000. We were in the third tier (League One now) and they were in the Premier League, but we beat them 1-0 on our first ever visit to Pride Park, Andy Cooke scoring our goal. Having been in the lower divisions for so long it was a reminder of how things used to be for us. At that time, we could never have envisaged the last few years.
Which player is likely to be the game changer or dangerman for Burnley in our FA Cup clash?
He’s not been quite at his best recently and he’s missed the last two games with injury, but Dwight McNeil can very much be a match winner on the left wing. He’s a great deliverer of a cross and also has a powerful shot that will go on to get him a lot of goals in his career.
What sort of style of football and formation can we expect to see?
Sean Dyche more often than not plays 4-4-2 and talks about his framework and how organised he has us. Don’t expect a wonderful expansive style of football but a team that is extremely difficult to beat when on its game. Defensively we are an outstanding team which we have to be at the level we are playing at.
Are you aware of any of the MK Dons players, and who are you most afraid of?
Dean Lewington is one name that comes easily to mind, but he’s been there forever. Other than that, players such as Cameron Jerome and Richard Keogh, and here’s another little story that people might not know. Burnley announced the signing of Keogh on a Friday in July 2005, but the manager then confirmed the following day that the deal had been cancelled.
Score prediction for the game?
It’s always difficult is this and I’d never predict anything but a win. Having said that we are unlikely to field a full-strength side or anything close to it. Even so I’ll go for a 2-0 win for Burnley.
Anything else you wish to add?
I’d love a good cup run. I’d love to go back to Wembley and win it, that would be perfect.
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