GLEN Little and Alan Lee are pushing for a return to front-line action as Burnley attempt to pull off mission impossible against Manchester City at Turf Moor tonight.

Trailing 5-0 from the first leg, the Clarets have a range of mountains to climb if they are to reach the second round of the Worthington Cup.

But the tie still has plenty of relevance for the players jostling for places in Stan Ternent's League campaign.

And Burnley will also be anxious to make amends for conceding 11 goals in their last two games against City - even if it's not enough to take them through.

"We will try to win the game and get a bit of self-esteem back and lay the ghosts to rest," confirmed Ternent, who will take the chance to rotate his players with three League games coming up thick-and-fast. "We're chasing a 5-0 deficit so it's going to be very difficult to progress to the next round if we are totally honest and realistic about it.

"So I'll give some of the players a break and I'll play some that I need to play that need the match practice.

"It will still be competitive and we'll still try and win the match," Ternent added.

As well as Little and Lee, who will replace the injured Andy Cooke, those set to benefit from the use of the squad system could include Graham Branch, Chris Brass and Mark Robertson.

However, John Mullin is not yet fit to return following a hip injury.

Ternent is now in the position of being able to replace players with those of equal quality and he plans to push First Division City all the way. The Burnley boss added: "We would have liked the tie to have been close, with a good crowd and some financial reward from the competition.

"But we made a backside of it in the first leg so I don't know how many will be there, whether there will be a lot or whether there'll be a few, but we will be going out and having a go.

"The important thing for us is the League but it would be a feather in our cap if we could a team of City's calibre. They are banging in goals all over the show and they are keeping a lot of clean sheets."

However, just as important will be avoiding further injuries to go with those sustained by Cooke, Mullin and Steve Davis.

"There's a lot of the lads that will need a full match and it will only do them good but I'm looking beyond that," Ternent said. "I'm looking at Stoke, Bristol Rovers and Bournemouth. That's three games in seven days so if you get one or two injuries it can be difficult. That's our priority so I have mixed feelings on it."

City boss Joe Royle will also make changes to his side that beat Sheffield United 6-0 on Saturday, but stressed that he's not taking victory for granted.

"If we go there thinking the job's already done we are going to have problems. We have got to be tuned in for it," he said.

Burnley from: Crichton, West, Smith, Cowan, Mellon, Thomas, Armstrong, Cook, Payton, Johnrose, Jepson, Lee, Branch, Grant, Little, Brass, Robertson.

Manchester City from: Weaver, Edghill, Wiekens, Morrison, Jobson, Bishop, Horlock, Cooke, Whitley, Kennedy, Taylor, Allsopp, Brown, Pollock, Wright, Mason, Wright-Phillips.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.