SCUNTHORPE United will have two former Premiership players joining their squad for tomorrow's televised test at Turf Moor, after making a double loan swoop for goalkeeper Lionel Perez and midfielder Clint Marcelle.

Frenchman Perez was snatched from Newcastle United, while Marcelle, who hails from Trinidad, has been borrowed from Barnsley.

Both signed in time to be available for tomorrow's game against Burnley.

Perez, out of favour at Newcastle, is a certain starter in goal, replacing youngster Tommy Evans.

Marcelle will definitely be in the squad but hasn't played much recently so it has yet to be decided whether he will start the game.

Meanwhile, Mitchell Thomas will collect his Second Division player-of-the-month award at Turf Moor tomorrow.

But he admits he would gladly trade it in for a guaranteed three points against Scunthorpe when Burnley kick-off an hour later.

Thomas will receive his Match magazine trophy at noon before getting down to the serious business of keeping Burnley's promotion challenge on track.

"Obviously it's nice still to be recognised and for people to consider you are doing well.

"But the three points will be the most important thing," stressed the Clarets defender. Thomas has been a key figure in Burnley's miserly back line, which creaked for the first time this season in allowing Brentford to come back from 2-0 down to snatch a draw a week ago. "It was out of character and it was just one of those things. It's going to take a lot of strength and determination to come back after that and I believe we've got that.

"You are going to get blips in a season. We had one last Saturday and hopefully tomorrow we can put that right," he added.

If Burnley can get back to winning ways, they will have collected 16 out of a possible 18 points at home and Thomas stressed: "Any team, from the Second Division to the Premier League, I think would be quite happy with that."

With Scunthorpe struggling for wins and goals following their promotion last season, the Clarets must be confident of collecting a necessary victory which could even take them back to the top of the table depending on other results today.

However, Thomas is predicting another testing afternoon. He added: "They came up last season and they're finding their feet a bit.

"They will make it difficult for us but we've got to keep grinding out results, keep running teams down and then we'll get the points we deserve.

"Overall the picture is very good . We might slip a couple of places after today but if we get the three points, we will be back where we belong come Monday morning."

The game (kick-off 1pm) is being shown live on Sky television but Thomas has seen it all before and he doesn't expect that to have any effect on his team-mates either.

"I just think you're going to go out there and perform to the best of your ability whether the television's there or not."

"You've just got to get on with the game and I don't think any of the lads are worried about the television being there," he said.

And Thomas, who has led by example for Burnley this term, will revel in the occcasion regardless of the coverage.

"I am enjoying it thoroughly. The training's been good and the playing's been good, and I can't complain.

"As I said when I came up, I wanted to play in a promotion campaign team and I believe that's what we are. I want to play as many games as possible. I want to play in every game if I can. You ask any footballer, whether young or old, and they will say the same thing," he added. While Thomas extends his ever-present record, John Mullin could come in for only his second start of the season in the Clarets midfield and Andy Cooke will also be pushing for a return.

Scunthorpe may also have former Clarets front man, John Gayle, could be on the bench, while former Turf Moor loan man Steve Guinan could also play a part.

Burnley from: Crichton, West, Smith, Mellon, Davis, Thomas, Little, Cook, Branch, Payton, Armstrong, Cooke, Mullin, Johnrose, Brass, Lee, Jepson, Cowan, Weller.

Scunthorpe from: Perez, Evans, Harsley, Wilcox, Hope, Dawson, Logan, Walker, Marshall, Sparrow, Hodges, Ipoua, Guinan, Marcelle, Fickling, Calvo-Garcia, Gayle, Sheldon.

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