Sean Dyche's Burnley travel to Huddersfield on Saturday to face a team who are presently defying the odds after being firmly installed as favourites to be relegated from the Premier League, following their Championship play off penalty shoot out win over Reading in May.
It was a famous win for the West Yorkshire outfit that saw David Wagner's Terriers return to the top level of English football for the first time since 1972.
The current struggles of Reading and the recent demise of Sheffield United made me wonder this week what might have happened had Burnley lost their own Wembley Championship play off final in 2009?
For a schoolboy Clarets' fan growing up in the 1960's winning away at Stamford Bridge and coming away from Old Trafford with a point would be no big surprise to a young Burnley fan.
Nowadays, and what seems like a lifetime later, the pride and joy at such results is something
special and is becoming the new norm when Burnley travel away from Turf Moor.
While Huddersfield fans may still have survival on their minds, Burnley fans are now looking forward to a top half league finish. The draw at Old Trafford was a good start to the second half of the season and being so close to victory, suggests
that a European spot for the Clarets is realistic.
Huddersfield's German born manager David Wagner won eight soccer caps for the United States. Last season was his first full season in England, following a playing and short managerial career with Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund reserves in Germany.
While his relationship
with the Liverpool gaffer may have helped him get the Huddersfield job, he has quickly demonstrated he is a top manager in his own right by transforming the Huddersfield team on a tiny budget by Championship and Premier League standards.
Wagner is very much a footballing 'brother' of Sean Dyche and like Dyche is quickly enhancing his reputation while he also builds a team able to compete against the odds and beat the best and more established Premier League sides. His player
bonding methods are straight out of the "Sean Dyche River Calder" manual.
This promises to be a hard fought battle between two teams determined to protect good home and away records.
Huddersfield currently lying 11th place in the table on 23 points are on course for survival. They have a healthy home points haul of fifteen, made up of four wins and three draws in the ten games played at the Kirklees Stadium.
Burnley's draw at Old Trafford keeps them in 7th place on 33 points. It maintained their excellent away record with sixteen points and only two defeats in the ten games played on opposition grounds.
The United result means the points gap to 8th place has now increased to 6 points, so regardless of the score at Huddersfield, Burnley will end the year top of the league table for teams outside the "Big Six".
While as many as ten points separates the two sides this still promises to be one of the most difficult games of the season for Sean Dyche's players. The two managers are very similar in their values and ambitions and both sets of players
enjoy an amazing relationship with their fans.
More gestures similar to that of Huddersfield's ever present Danish international defender Mathias Jorgensen would restore some of the goodwill that seems to have gone from the game at the highest level.
Jorgensen personally treated the 1581 travelling Huddersfield
fans who made the recent 472 mile round trip to Southampton, to a free pint before the Boxing Day home game to Stoke.
Wagner's team seem to have recovered from a run of four heavy defeats in November and early December. Results since then have shown that the side have not lost their early season belief and resilience that saw them end Manchester United's 8 game unbeaten
start to the season. They are unbeaten over the Christmas period with two 1-1 draws against Southampton and Stoke.
The goalscoring return from injury of record signing Beninese striker Steve Mounie and the goals of key Australian international midfielder Aaron Mooy give Huddersfield much more of a threat in front of goal than they showed in the drab, goalless draw at Turf Moor earlier in the season.
It is a fact Mooy has found it easier to score in the Premier League than playing in the Championship. This new found potency can be backed up by a Watford side who recently found themself picking the ball out of their net four times
against the Terriers.
Yet for all the threat that Huddersfield pose, you would expect an in form Clarets side to come away from the Kirklees Stadium with some sort of a positive result .
The losing Tottenham performance can now be forgotten after the side showed no ill effects and were minutes from coming away from Old Trafford with a famous Boxing Day win. That result will have boosted the whole team, no one more than Eire's Kevin Long, who proved he can play
at the highest club level.
When I talk to fans of other clubs at the moment, the one Burnley player they mention is Ashley Barnes. Ashley opened the scoring at Old Trafford with a well taken goal, however up to now he hasn't always seemed to get the same respect from his own fans
that other fans show. Recent performances and goals suggest this may soon change.
The experience at Old Trafford will have also have helped new recruit from Leeds United, Charlie Taylor to settle into the Burnley defence since the loss of Stephen Ward through injury. Sean Dyche can also rely on the services of two hard seasoned professionals in Dean Marney and Jon Walters who are both back to full match fitness.
Despite several injuries to first team players and the unavailability of the highly coveted centre back James Tarkowski because of suspension, the Clarets' squad now looks to have a lot of depth about
it.
My last wish of 2017 is that we see a game without an opposition player diving to win a penalty and Burnley's last game of the year has a fairytale ending with a Clarets' winner coming from either Huddersfield ex-boy, Scotty Arfield or Nakki Wells.
Happy New Year from the Donz. Michael Donnelly alias the "Donz" writes regularly for Clarets Mad who wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous 2018. (TEC).
Source: DSG
