INJURY and illness-stricken Burnley may only have TWO substitutes on their bench tonight instead of the usual five at Portman Road, writes Derek Davis.

INJURY and illness-stricken Burnley may only have TWO substitutes on their bench tonight instead of the usual five at Portman Road, writes Derek Davis.

On top of the usual broken limbs and strains, the Lancashire side have been hammered by a virus which has swept the dressing room.

Manager Stan Ternent was last night hoping latest victims Luke Cadwick and Mo Camara, who were sent home from training yesterday, will recover in time.

If not he will have just three defenders and will go to a five-man midfield including teenager Richard Chaplow.

The Clarets are without David May who is suspended, while fellow centre -back Any Todd has been recalled by Premiership side Blackburn Rovers, so make-shift defenders Graham Branch and Lee Roche stand in as centre-halves.

Burnley are also without long-term injury victims Alan Moore, who had a knee operation last week, Mark McGregor, out for three weeks to a month with a knee problem and Paul Scott has a broken foot.

So Ternent has two teenagers, Matt O'Neill and Joel Pilkington, as his only back up on the bench.

But the Burnley boss remained philosophical about his threadbare squad and added: “You never know where the injuries and suspensions are going to come from.

“You can get a bug just the same as you get a kick or a strain. Over the course of a season it's going to happen, but we will get 11 out and have a good go at it.”

Ternent was at Valley Parade to see Ipswich hammer Bradford City 1-0 and admits he will be happy to leave Portman Road with a draw.

The Clarets are one place ahead of Town by virtue of goals scored having bagged 19 goals compared to Town's 17.

He said: “We have exactly the same records, but I hope it's not a draw banker. If that's the worse result we get, I'll take it, but we would like to win the game.

“You always get a good game of football against Joe's teams. They went into administration but have come out of it and they have a lot of quality players.

“They are a very good side and I would have thought they will be there or thereabouts.

“They have been on a nice little run and I watched them at Bradford on Saturday when they could have won by more.”

Despite the purse strings being pulled tight Ternent believes his side can stay at the top end of the table.

He said: “It's a big game for us at Ipswich and West Ham on Saturday and we look forward to them both.

“Looking at it on paper, they are both very difficult matches, but we drew at Ipswich last year and they are good matches to play in.

“It's the level we are playing at and if we want to be taken seriously we have to be able to compete against that quality of team - and we can.”