RICHARD Chaplow stands on the verge of making history by becoming the first Burnley player ever to earn an England Under 21 cap.

The Clarets midfielder, 19, has been sensationally promoted to David Platt's squad for tomorrow's friendly against Holland in Hull.

Chaplow had been gearing up to travel with the U19s to face the Netherlands, but a last minute re-shuffle means the Accrington-born youngster could now achieve a unique feat at Turf Moor.

Several ex-Clarets stars have appeared at either full, the old under 23s, or youth level - but nobody has ever won U21 recognition.

Chaplow, one of eight new faces U21 boss Platt welcomes into the fold as part of his preparations for the forthcoming European Championship qualifiers, is not expected to start tomorrow night's game at Hull City's

Kingston Communications Stadium.

But he should feature at some point alongside Premiership stars such as Chelsea's Glen Johnson, Darren Ambrose of Newcastle, Arsenal's David Bentley and Blackburn starlet Jonathan Stead.

Chaplow's inclusion softens the blow of Burnley falling to their first defeat of 2004 in Saturday's FA Cup exit at Millwall.

Danny Dichio scored the only goal in an explosive game that saw Clarets substitute Paul Weller sent off 17 minutes from time for a push on Lions player/boss Dennis Wise.

And Burnley boss Stan Ternent promised to hand Weller a fair trial before rueing a missed opportunity to make the quarter finals for the second successive season.

Ternent said: "I haven't seen it, but Paul is an honest lad and he said he pushed Dennis.

"If he did that I don't see how a push could be a straight red card, but what I would say is that if he (Weller) has gone on the field for 10 minutes and been irresponsible, after the effort and endeavour the 22 players have

put in, then I will deal with it severely internally.

"It just wasn't our day because we had had three, maybe four fantastic opportunities to score and get Millwall back to Turf Moor.

"Sadly, it didn't happen, but it wasn't meant to be and that's life."