FANS will flock from far and wide to East Lancashire this weekend for the region's biggest football game in nearly 20 years.

And it won't just be Lancashire folk making the trip to Turf Moor to witness Burnley take on Blackburn Rovers in the Division One clash. Or even this country for that matter.

Both sides have avid fans who think nothing of spanning vast distances to watch their heroes in action. Not for them the club coach on match days -- instead, they have a jet plane bringing them from foreign climes.

For one Clarets fan travelling all the way from America, this Sunday has even extra meaning -- his ninth birthday.

Although Jonathan Crossley (pictured) is more familiar with the red, white and blue Stars and Stripes of his native San Francisco, English-born dad Tony has made sure the claret and blue of Burnley has never been forgotten.

This week Tony and Jonathan will make a pilgrimage of roughly 5,250 miles (as the crow flies) to Burnley to see their side. Speaking via e-mail from his American home, Tony told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph: "I've supported the Clarets all my life being a regular from the early 70s to the mid 80s. Frank Casper & co were my schoolboy heroes and although I lived in Formby during those years, I travelled to most home and away games."

In 1985 Tony took a job in San Francisco for "a couple of years " and never left. And despite the lure of the East Coast the real estate worker still yearns for East Lancashire.

He said: "We have Boddington's here now but it's Burnley that I miss the most. I get back every year for a game or two and now we are Premier League bound I'll be making more trips hopefully. Jonathan is an avid Burnley fan too and the best part of Saturday morning is huddling around the computer at 7am getting the scores."

This weekend's visit to Turf Moor is not the first for Jonathan -- but he hopes it will better than last time when Burnley got shamed by Manchester City 6-0.

"The loss to City and the journey back on the Wednesday tested our faith," admitted Tony, who has family in East Lancashire who share his obsession. "My wife thinks I'm nuts but she just doesn't understand."

Not to be outdone, Rovers also has its foreign army, most notably Takeshi Yamamoto.

The Japanese television director from Sakura City started to follow Rovers in 1994 and often arranged his business commitments to fit in with the season. In 1997 Takeshi made the ultimate trip to Ewood Park with wife Kayo when they had their recent wedding blessed on the hallowed turf.