BURNLEY'S players are determined to make sure they spoil Portsmouth's promotion celebration as assistant manager Sam Ellis explained: "We hope to be party-poopers."

And following their shock defeat against Sheffield Wednesday he added: "We firmly believe anyone can beat anybody else on their day.

"Portsmouth are top of the league and they would like to win it and maybe they will be a bit nervous again. They have had a great season and they are one of the two best sides in the division, whichever wins the title will deserve it.

"It is another long trek for us but that does not bother us, at the end of the trip we will get a good game of football. There will be no problem of motivation for our players because they play for pride.

"People talk about playing for contracts but these are professional people who try and go out and give their best every time they play."

Manager Stan Ternent has been forced to mix and match in the last couple of games and has fielded a five man midfield with three strikers in it and Ellis does not see many changes after a useful performance, if not result, at Carrow Road.

"It looks like we will have a similar squad as to the one we had on Saturday," he said. "We were quite happy with the way we acquitted ourselves and we thought we played quite well.

"But the two goals we thought we could have done better on. Over time we have done better and the rest of the time we were quite good."

Lee Briscoe looks set to miss out having been stretchered off at the weekend as he was in the physio room at the training ground yesterday afternoon.

But Ellis said: "We have got Arthur Gnohere back from suspension and Brad Maylett will go into the squad after coming back from his loan spell at Swansea."

And he has not ruled out the possibility that a couple of the young players who have been involved in recent matches will again be in action, even though it is such a big game.

But he said: "The gaffer will be looking at that and doing what is best for them. It depends on the circumstances but he may feel that there is nothing to lose. They have got things to prove but have so far acquitted themselves very well."

The likes of Matty O'Neill, Richard Chaplow and Joel Pilkington are all at the opposite end of the football career scale to the four men who will go head to head in the dug-outs tonight.

Ellis and Ternent are close friends with Harry Redknapp and Jim Smith, the men in charge of the Pompey revolution this season, but with such a long trip home facing them he said: "There might not be time to have a drink with them after the game, we'll have to see if they will be having a celebration. If they are they deserve it."