IN 2006 Burnley faced Nelson in the Worsley Cup final and the boys from Seedhill will be hoping history can repeat itself tomorrow when the sides meet once again. For Burnley it will be a third final in a row, for Nelson the first since Kiwi professional Craig McMillan’s unbeaten 99 and 50 from Marcus Phelan helped them to glory at Turf Moor in a final that stretched over two days.

Current Nelson skipper Neil Thompson was in the team that day, unbeaten on 15 as his side celebrated glory.

“There are three of us surviving from the team that won it nine years ago in myself, Richard Meade and Khurram Nazir so we have that experience.

“We haven’t been in the final since then and it would be great to win it again but we know it will be a tough game.”

Thompson is right. His side face a Burnley side who head the league and have already won the Ron Singleton Trophy and the Moorhouse’s Twenty20 competition as they bid for a Lancashire League clean sweep.

“We know Burnley are the favourites. Hopefully that can play into our hands as the pressure will definitely be off. Being at home might help us as well in that it is our wicket so we are looking to use that to our advantage,” said Thompson “But Burnley have a great set of players and are on a real run at the moment. They are probably the best Lancashire League team I have ever seen so we know it is going to be a really tough game.”

Nelson can take some confidence from the way they ran Burnley close earlier in the season in a narrow defeat.

“We’ve had a poor run in the league so it was nice to get a win and 12 points last weekend,” added Thompson. “We want to try and take that performance into Saturday’s game against Accrington and build some momentum for the cup final.”

Nelson, who will be without Chris Heap for the final, will also have a new sub professional in Qaiser Abbas after opting against using Ryan Canning to step in for the absent Keshav Maharaj.