Thursday 26 July 2018 13:09, UK
Sean Dyche has played down Burnley's travel difficulties ahead of their long-awaited return to European football on Thursday night.
Burnley were due to fly out from Manchester at 4pm on Wednesday ahead of the first leg of their Europa League second-qualifying-round tie against Aberdeen at Pittodrie, but were hit by a three-hour delay.
However, the Clarets had already trained in the morning and Dyche, speaking at a rearranged media conference, said: "It was no problem at all. It sometimes happens, the flight had a technical problem and we were delayed a bit.
"But we were flying out of Manchester and most of our players live in south-west Manchester so they popped home for a couple of hours. So it was no big drama."
Burnley have not played in Europe since the 1966-67 season and there is a sense of anticipation ahead of their first action in more than half a century.
"Certainly from our fans, you will see plenty of them here, and there is a real feeling about the town," Dyche said. "Because the strides have been considerable in the last number of years.
"So to get here is a different thing to some other clubs maybe. We look at it as a real badge of honour playing in this competition."
Dyche revealed he had travelled without goalkeeper Tom Heaton (calf), Ashley Barnes (blisters) and Steven Defour (calf), while Robbie Brady will not feature as he fights back from a long-term knee injury.
Striker Chris Wood shook off a hip problem to make the journey north and goalkeeper Nick Pope is in contention to start after returning from World Cup duty with England.
