Burnley will be looking to claim their first victory in any competition for over two months when they welcome Huddersfield Town to Turf Moor for their third-round tie in the FA Cup on Saturday lunchtime.
This will be the first FA Cup meeting between the Clarets and the Terriers since January 1972, which saw the latter secure a slender 1-0 away victory.
Match preview
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Burnley's underwhelming Premier League campaign was dealt another blow last weekend when they suffered a 3-1 defeat away against Leeds United.
After Jack Harrison opened the scoring for the Whites six minutes before half time, the Clarets equalised thanks to a brilliant free kick from substitute Maxwel Cornet nine minutes after the break. However, it would be the hosts who would go on the claim all three points as a strike from Stuart Dallas and a late header from Daniel James condemned the visitors to their eighth league defeat.
Sean Dyche's men remain in the relegation zone, where they have been since mid-September, though they are only two points from safety with at least one game in hand on the rest of the league.
With Dyche in self-isolation after testing positive for coronavirus, Ian Woan will lead the team out for Saturday's FA Cup tie, and he will be hoping that a brief break from league action against Championship opposition can help turn the club's fortunes around, having failed to win any of their last seven top-flight matches.
The Clarets have progressed from the third round in each of the last three seasons, beating lower league opposition at Turf Moor on each occasion.
Burnley are unbeaten in their last seven meetings against the Terriers, including all four previous encounters in the Premier League – drawing three and winning once – and as the visitors have lost 10 of their last 12 FA Cup away games against top-flight teams, Dyche and co will be confident of securing a much-needed victory in front of their home supporters.
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Huddersfield Town were able to extend their unbeaten league run to six matches when they played out a goalless draw away against high-flying Blackburn Rovers last weekend.
Despite registering only one shot on target throughout the 90 minutes, head coach Carlos Corberan will have been pleased to have taken a point away from Ewood Park and to have kept their 10th clean sheet of the season.
Sunday's stalemate means that the Terriers remain in the playoffs, six points behind Rovers in the automatic promotion places and one point ahead of seventh-placed Middlesbrough who have a game in hand.
Huddersfield now turn their attention to the FA Cup, a competition that they have struggled in over the years. The Terriers have failed to advance from the third round in five of the last seven seasons, including each of the last three.
The West-Yorkshire outfit have been knocked out of the FA Cup on four previous occasions by Burnley – in 1914-15, 1923-24, 1956-57 and 1963-64 – but with Corberon's men boasting better form than their Premier League counterparts, a cup upset cannot be ruled out on Saturday.
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Team News
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Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope is unlikely to feature as he has not been in training this week following a spell out with COVID-19, while Saturday's game will come too soon for both Ashley Barnes and Connor Roberts.
The hosts will also be without summer signing Cornet, who is away on international duty with Ivory Coast for the Africa Cup of Nations, though Josh Brownhill could be in contention to return.
Matthew Lowton, James Tarkowski, Ashley Westwood and Aaron Lennon could all drop out from the side which faced Leeds, with Phil Bardsley, Nathan Collins, Jack Stephens and Jay Rodriguez among those who are expected to start.
As for Huddersfield, quintet Naby Sarr, Rolando Aarons, Alex Vallejo, Jonathan Hogg and Danny Ward were all absent due to either injury or illness at the weekend and remain doubtful for Saturday's game.
Striker Fraizer Campbell is also a doubt for the visitors after missing the last four matches with an injury.
Jordan Rhodes could be handed a start up front ahead of Josh Koroma and he could be joined in attack by Duane Holmes and Danel Sinani.
Burnley possible starting lineup:
Hennessey; Bardsley, Collins, Mee, Pieters; Gudmundsson, Cork, Stephens, McNeil; Vydra, Rodriguez
Huddersfield Town possible starting lineup:
Nicholls; Pearson, Lees, Colwill; Thomas, High, O'Brien, Toffolo; Sinani, Holmes; Rhodes
We say: Burnley 1-1 Huddersfield Town (Huddersfield Town to win on penalties)
Although Burnley will head into Saturday's tie as the favourites, the Premier League outfit are enduring a difficult run of form in contrast to their Championship counterparts.
The Terriers will likely name a strong side at Turf Moor, while the Clarets may decide to rest a few star names and with that in mind, a score draw could be on the cards in 90 minutes, with the visitors edging it on penalties.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Burnley win with a probability of 49.16%. A win for Huddersfield Town had a probability of 25.64% and a draw had a probability of 25.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Burnley win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.3%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.42%) and 2-0 (8.88%). The likeliest Huddersfield Town win was 0-1 (7.63%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.98%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 6.4% likelihood.
