BURNLEY can't afford to get sand kicked in their faces when they face the full force of the French foreign legion at Walsall tomorrow, writes PETE OLIVER.

A week ago a trip to the Bescot Stadium may not have held too many fears for the Clarets despite their apparent travel sickness.

But a further infusion of French talent has put a new slant on things and guaranteed another tough test of Burnley's fighting qualities.

Roger Boli has been strutting his stuff in the West Midlands along with fellow countryman Jeff Peron since the start of the season.

And the French connection has just been increased with startling effect.

Former European Cup 'winner' Jean-Jacques Eydelie and ex-St Etienne and Bordeaux striker Didier Tholot have joined the Saddlers on loan from Swiss club Sion until the end of the season and helped Walsall shock Second Division leaders Watford on Tuesday night.

Tholot marked his debut with a stunning volleyed goal just 10 minutes into his English career and is hungry for a repeat against Burnley.

"There's more of where that came from," he warned. "I enjoyed the game very much and it was important to get three points.

"I am looking forward to playing in front of the Walsall fans tomorrow and hopefully we will win that as well.

"I love scoring goals and I will try my best to do it every game."

Tholot and Boli promise to form an explosive partnership, despite the fact that Boli hasn't found the net in the league for 12 matches.

He has still scored 22 times this season, though, and his goals have helped the Walsall Bescot faithful get over the loss of Kyle Lightbourne, whose 20 goals last season prompted Coventry City and more recently Stoke to pay £500,000 for the Bermudian international.

Boli's brother Basil was one of Burnley manager Chris Waddle's friends and team-mates during his years with Marseille. And the former Lens striker has been fulsome in his praise of Waddle in the run-up to the game which may also double as a dress rehearsal for the final of the Auto Windscreens Shield.

One of Boli's 11 cup goals this season came in the 5-1 fourth round FA Cup defeat at Manchester United which banked Walsall £500,000.

And with the club pulling in £250,000 for a Coca Cola Cup run which included wins over Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United, the fans were beginning to question where the money had gone as Walsall slipped down the table.

The arrival of Tholot and Eydelie has gone down well, however. The quality of the two can hardly be questioned, although Eydelie's record has not always been unblemished.

The 31-year-old midfielder played for Marseille in their 1-0 win over AC Milan in the final of the 1993 European Cup in Munich but the French club was then stripped of the title.

And from the fall-out of the bribery scandal that rocked the French champions Eydelie was banned from football for a year.

Fully rehabilitated, Eydelie helped Walsall collect their first win in six League games at Vicarage Road to stop a slide towards the relegation zone. Two defeats and a draw in their last three home games has been largely responsible for that but there will be a new air of optimism at their pristine ground on Saturday, when they are expecting only their second 6,000 plus crowd of the season.

Shouts of encouragement may have to come in several different languages but the mix seems to be working for Walsall's Danish manager, who also has a Sierra Leone international in his ranks in the shape of John Keister but no longer a Cameroon one since Charlie Ntamark joined Hednesford Town.

An unlikely successor to Chris Nichol last summer, Sorensen has also played to the highest level but had previous management experience only in Portugal.

Capped 14 times for Denmark, he appeared for FC Brugge when they lost to a Kenny Dalglish goal against Liverpool in the European Cup final at Wembley in 1978.

Along with Waddle, that makes it three European Cup finalists on view and you'll have to scour the rest of tomorrow's domestic programme pretty carefully to come up with a better pedigree.

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