ALTHOUGH David Kelly has never played in Lancashire, he's featured in many bruising derby games over the years.

Today's Turf Moor clash has an added ingredient though for the Preston assistant manager, who will renew acquaintances with no less than five Burnley players he lined up alongside at Tranmere Rovers.

Danny Coyne may still be sidelined and John McGreal suspended, but Kelly's eye could be vital to North End as he uses his inside knowledge to plot the Clarets' downfall.

Kelly said: "It will be nice to see a few of the old Tranmere boys. There's five ex-Tranmere players there and I played with all of them.

"It can really help when you know players personally because you know their strengths and weaknesses, which could prove vital.

"But it's not always nice to see old mates again. I saw Alan Mahon last weekend and he got one over on me (scoring in Wigan's 5-0 win), so hopefully that won't be the case again."

Kelly added: "I've played in quite a few derbies myself so I know how important they are. But they are really supporter's games. I don't believe it's a player's game - it's all about the fans and hopefully earning bragging rights for a while."

While Kelly is a man hoping to cut his teeth in management one day, Burnley boss Steve Cotterill has seven years of league management under his belt.

The two men have come a long way from players who both plied their trade at non-league Alvechurch in the 1980's - albeit at different times.

Their careers have since followed very different paths, with Kelly enjoying success everywhere in 700 appearances and 250 goals, while Cotterill's playing career was bought to a premature end with a knee injury after finally breaking into the league and playing for Wimbledon, Brighton and Bournemouth.

The untimely injury saw Cotterill make the step into coaching and then management very early on, taking the reigns at Cheltenham when Kelly had just signed for Tranmere - a spell which saw him lead Rovers to the League Cup final and indeed score at Wembley.

But there is no doubt the 39-year-old would love to go on and achieve what this afternoon's counterpart has managed.

Kelly insisted: "Burnley have been doing really well so far and it's hardly surprising because Steve's a very good manager.

"I played against him loads of times but I came across him again a few years ago when I was at Mansfield and he was manager of Cheltenham and doing very very well.

"He has worked really well with the players he's got. He might not have too many but he's got some very good players. McGreal, Coyne, Robbie Blake, Graham Branch and Ian Moore are all good players so the talent is there. Let's just hope it's not on show today!"

As mentioned, Lancashire is one of the few areas in which Kelly never played during a 19-year professional career that saw him turn out for 10 different teams.

He was duly appointed as number two at Deepdale in November, teaming up with Billy Davies for the third time after playing with the North End boss at Leicester and for him at Motherwell.

Now together, they are hoping their partnership will mastermind Preston's rise back to the big time.

Kelly explained: "I've known the gaffer for ages so it's quite easy to work with him because we tell each other what we think, so I'm really enjoying it.

"It's something that we talked about for a long time, so it wasn't as if it was out of the blue because we always said that if we both did okay then we'd try and get together.

"It just worked out really well that Billy got the manager's job here and I came to join him."

After beginning his coaching career on the Wirral Kelly, affectionately nicknamed 'Ned' after the infamous bush bandit, then became Neil Warnock's right-hand man at Sheffield United before moving back up to North West.

The likeable Brummy is now a regular on the M6, commuting between his Birmingham home and Deepdale.

And having spread his wings as far as North East with Newcastle and Sunderland, and also playing in the Midlands with Walsall and Wolves, he's now realising just what a footballing hot-bed Lancashire is and how important the game is to their hugely passionate supporters.

He said: "There is a huge contingent of football clubs up here and some very very big ones.

"Sam Allardyce was named manager of the year at the North West sports awards because Bolton are doing well.

"Blackburn have just appointed a new boss and I'm sure Mark Hughes will do well because he's a good coach, while both Preston and Burnley have new management teams in place, which is all good for the area.

"It doesn't half make a difference going to work on a Monday morning when you've won.

"It's all about the feelgood factor and success breeds success, so it would be nice for us to beat Burnley, but for them to have a good season as well."