YOU know what it’s like when something preys on your mind just before you’re about to settle down for the night.

Well I went to bed last Thursday with the theme tune to Only Fools and Horses spinning around my head.

All because the fixture computer had once again paired Burnley away at Swansea for the August Bank Holiday weekend, just as it did four years ago.

Then, we faced the Swans straight after our relegation from the Premier League in 2010. We lost 1-0 in a game that I summed up in this column by writing that we had been ‘passed to death!’

Playing small tight triangles they eventually wore the Clarets down to claim victory on their way to a play-off promotion.

However, this wasn’t the reason for my consternation, rather the fact that the self-same quartet of myself, the Weed, Knock-off Nigel, and Jona-thong Taylor were making the journey in ‘Knock-off’s’ car once again.

On the previous sojourn my passenger seat slid freely up and down on its base rail, hot air had to be continuously blown up through the windscreen vents to prevent over heating on a boiling hot Friday and his exhaust fell off at Worcester on the way home.

Add to that, three of us were crammed into a room which rabbits would have deemed too small, while ‘Knock-off’ occupied a king sized bed in the penthouse suite, and you can see why I made it my business to organise all transportation and accommodation issues.

Knock-off’s newer jalopy got us to our Port Talbot destination for 7pm. After a quick change of clothes, as last time we found ourselves along with a few other Clarets down at Swansea Guild Hall for the city’s beer festival.

That is where the sense of deja vue began to kick in. The beer was fast running out around the same time as Burnley’s luck at the Liberty Stadium. Once again a single goal was the difference in a tight passing game.

It has been two spirited opening performances that has shown we’re not a million miles away but in both matches I think that we have stood a little too far off what are quality opposition.

However, show a team too much deference and they will assume superiority as the Swans must know, having like ourselves survived expulsion from the Football League on the last day of the season.

They should be our benchmark, as we too try and get the better of Manchester United this coming Saturday. Before that of course we can warm up for that one by progressing in the Capital One Cup against Sheffield Wednesday at the Turf tonight.