STAN Ternent has become Burnley's first major pre-season casualty, going down with a virus which confined him to home yesterday!

But the Turf Moor boss has still been able to complete arrangements for a pre-season friendly game behind closed doors at Sheffield Wednesday's training ground.

And the game against the Owls will probably be the first opportunity for the manager to see his trio of close-season signings in any kind of action.

At the same time, Ternent appealed to any Burnley supporters thinking of travelling to try to see the game, not to do so as they would be wasting their time and money.

Many fans will be off work and school this week as the town's annual holidays do not end until the weekend but Ternent pointed out: "Wednesday want to keep it completely private so no-one will be allowed in.

"Some of our supporters might be keen to watch the team but I don't want them to have a wasted journey and that's what it would be, as Wednesday have told us there will be strictly no admittance.

"It will be much better for them to come along to the games we have planned for Turf Moor, against Everton and Sunderland next week." Defenders Mitchell Thomas, from Luton, and Dean West (Bury), along with striker Alan Lee (Aston Villa) are all set to feature in those games anyway, as Burnley are expected to use a full squad for the pre-season matches - injuries permitting.

Originally, there may have been a temptation for Ternent to use tomorrow night's friendly at Northwich as a senior fixture following the postponement of the planned friendly against Manchester City.

But he now has the Sheffield trip to run through things for the first time on the pitch and these 'private' matches do not have the same restrictions as public games.

So he could probably use all his senior players at various stages if he wanted against Wednesday and that means it could well be more or less a reserve squad which goes to Northwich.

"To be honest, I haven't had much chance to think about that at this stage," said the manager who is hoping to make a quick recovery from his virus problem.

"But it will probably be a young squad, as we now have our quota of first team games again."

Tickets are now on sale for the Turf Moor clashes with Premiership pair Everton and Sunderland, with tickets priced £10 (£4 concessions).

Everton are the visitors tomorrow week, Thursday, July 22 (kick-off 7.45pm), with newly-promoted Sunderland due the following Sunday, July 25 (12 noon).

A ticket office spokesman said: "We have had a lot of calls about the games and there is obviously a lot of interest. We would expect that to increase once the holiday period is over."

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