EVEN as a babe-in-arms Morgan Shapland was predicting that the Clarets would be back in the big time.

Aged just five weeks Morgan, from Briercliffe, was pictured in the club programme in a crib for the penultimate home Premier League game against Liverpool, underneath the message ‘We’ll Be Back’.

And Morgan, now four, has been true to his word, notching up his first game at Turf Moor for a pre-season friendly versus Sparta Rotterdam last year, and barely missing a home fixture since.

The youngster, who goes on with season-ticket holder parents Chris and Rachel, is eagerly awaiting Monday's historic clash with Chelsea to resume his all-abiding passion.

Chris, 31, a former centre-half and third team manager at Barnoldswick Town, said: “It has been all he has been talking about for weeks — he absolutely loves it.

“He’s even been to all of the friendlies as well, which has been good because we’re usually quite high up in the Jimmy McIlroy Stand and we’ve been able to sit lower down in the Bob Lord, where he can watch them warm up.”

Re-runs of old Burnley games are more to Morgan’s taste than cartoons or kids’ programmes and, like most young Clarets, Danny Ings is his main man.

“He knows all of them but Danny is his favourite. We were wondering, with all the speculation, whether to have ‘Ings’ on the back of his shirt,” said Chris.

“But when we went to get it printed, the lettering is a little larger for the Premier League so Ings was a much better fit than Morgan, so that’s what he ended up having.”

His dad is slightly concerned though, with the bright lights of the top flight, that Morgan may have some tougher times ahead than during his idols’ Championship cakewalk.

“He’s only ever seen them lose once, to Leicester.”

Morgan, who will attend Briercliffe Primary in September, has already started his own footballing career with a pre-school programme.