I guess it will be a case of QPR having to watch out for Ade Akinbiyi!
Burnley Official Site
Burnley kick-off 2006 with a trip to west London to face Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road in the Championship.
The match brings to an end the gruelling festive spell of games, which has seen the Clarets play four matches in the space of seven days.
That haul has also seen the Clarets win one out of their three games so far, so they will be looking to add to that against Rangers.
Lying in wait for Burnley is a QPR side who will be determined to make a bright start to the new year and lift themselves up the table.
Following what could be considered a good season last time around, Ian Holloway's side were amongst the outside bets to make a challenge for the play-offs this season.
However, like many teams in the division, consistency has proved hard to come by for the Superhoops and they currently sit in mid-table but are well within reach of the group of teams above them.
Holloway managed to bring a few new faces into his squad over the close season, with giant Danish striker Marc Nygaard arriving from Brescia, Tommy Doherty from Bristol City, Ian Evatt from Chesterfield, Steve Lomas from West Ham United and Richard Langley, who returned from a spell at Cardiff City.
Nygaard has made a big impression so far in the games that he has played in, scoring four goals in his six starts and five substitute appearances.
He is sharing the 'top goalscorer' tag with Gareth Ainsworth, Paul Furlong and Kevin Gallen.
It is goalscoring where Rangers have been short this season though, with only 14 goals registered on their home patch so far this season and that is an area that Holloway will be looking to improve upon.
Last season's home form was impressive but this time around they haven't been quite as formidable. There have been excellent wins over the likes of Sheffield United, Norwich City, Ipswich Town and Luton Town, but they have then tasted defeat in games against Coventry City and Preston North End and drawn with Sheffield Wednesday and Hull City, which are all games Holloway would have wanted to win.
They did pick up three points at Loftus Road on Wednesday night though when Nygaard scored the winner to make up for the Boxing Day setback at Brighton and Hove Albion.
Burnley will certainly be hoping this season's trip to Loftus Road sees better luck than the last time they visited.
The Clarets were caught out by two early goals from the R's before Danny Coyne was stretchered off after conceding a third goal, all of this in the first 30 minutes of the game.
The return fixture made better reading for Burnley fans, as a brace from Ade Akinbiyi against an injury hit Rangers side saw a 2-0 win at Turf Moor in April....
Burnley will be hoping that they have picked up no new injuries from the New Year's Eve game with Sheffield Wednesday at Turf Moor.
John Spicer missed that game with a shin injury and he is unlikely to figure in the Rangers game whilst John McGreal could miss out after being substituted in the first half against Sheffield Wednesday.
Rangers are expected to be without Doherty who has been out with a clinical fracture and is still in rehabilitation, whilst Kevin Gallen is also struggling for fitness at the moment and is set to miss out on this game.
Steve Lomas has been out, but is back in training now and could be considered for the game.
Striker Stefan Moore missed Wednesday's game with illness but is likely to be back involved now, whilst Nygaard and Marc Bircham have only been able to make restricted appearances from the bench after suffering from injuries in the last few weeks.
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Cotterill: 'We Only Turned Up For 30 Minutes'
Burnley boss Steve Cotterill felt his side were out-fought and out-scrapped by Sheffield Wednesday for too long on New Year's Eve.
The Clarets found themselves 2-0 down against the struggling Owls and didn't look their normal selves until Garreth O'Connor's late penalty gave them hope of rescuing a point.
It wasn't to be though and despite the pressure Burnley had in the dying stages, Cotterill had no complaints about the eventual outcome.
"It was a disappointing way to end the year and you can't expect to play for 30 minutes and win a game," he said.
"We had too many players who didn't turn up for an hour today and that's not like us, certainly at home.
"For 30 minutes, I don't think their back four were out of the 18 yard box but you've got to give them credit.
"They have come here today and they out-fought us and out-scrapped us for an hour and that's unlike us because we don't normally lose those sort of contests.
"For an hour we were second best and we know that, although it doesn't happen very often.
"It's tough for us, but the one thing we aren't going to do is complain about weary legs because it's the same for everybody and they came here and out-fought us, that's the bottom line.
"We didn't have enough players in the dressing room that wanted to win that game and that was probably typified with that scramble in the box and they got a toe to it twice and we didn't."
On another day, the Clarets may have salvaged a result from the game though and Cotterill added: "We could have had a draw and if we'd have turned up for the first hour, we wouldn't have found ourselves in that situation and we could have gone and won the game.
"From 2-0 down, it's unbelievably hard and we did it in the last game at Norwich too because we battered them in the second half."
The Clarets now hit the road again for a match with Queens Park Rangers on Monday and Cotterill joked: "Hopefully, their game against Crewe will be end-to-end and then in the second half end-to-end again and then there's 30 minutes of added time when it's end-to-end again and then Ollie takes the boys out for a new year drink, which probably won't happen!""We'd like to get a result there on Monday, but I'm sure QPR will have something to say about that. http://www.burnleyfootballclub.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/NewsDetail/0,,10413~761851,00.html
BURNLEY RESULTS
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