THERE are plenty of links between the Clarets and the Eagles, beyond the fact that they have made a slow start to this season.

Not only was Stan Ternent manager a popular coach at the club more than ten years ago, key players Glen Little and Ian Cox began their careers in South East London.

In addition striker Gareth Taylor spent a few months at the club after joining them from Bristol Rovers.

All those connections date back several years and there is little to tie those men to the current set-up under Trevor Francis.

Burnley were his opponents as Palace boss last December when he finally completed the bizarre "job-swap" with Steve Bruce and Ternent knows it will be a tough test for his players tomorrow.

"I know that Palace are a good side and Trevor is a good pal of mine," he explained. "They have ambitions to go on and have a major benefactor in Simon Jordan.

"But we all know that there are no easy games in this division anyway."

After winning on the opening day of the season at Deepdale, Crystal Palace have lost twice and drawn twice and while that is a record that Burnley would be happy to have, it is well below the expectations at Selhurst Park.

Francis took over a club that was pushing for the play-offs and the last time they came to Turf Moor, under Bruce, they were actually top of the first division.

Francis has been wheeling and dealing throughout the summer and tried to compensate for the loss of Clinton Morrison with the introduction of Andrew Johnson, the promising young striker he helped develop at St Andrews.