REUNIONS can be wonderful things.

A chance to catch-up with old friends, swap stories and reacquaint ourselves with a previous time.

I just hope that on Saturday, the reunion for our former skipper Tom Heaton isn’t so sweet.

We know how good a keeper Tom is but I’m hoping he has a rare off day at Villa Park this weekend!

To be fair we go into the game on the back of a very good performance last week at home to another newly-promoted club, Norwich.

I’ve been saying that we hadn’t quite clicked into gear yet this season but we certainly did against the Canaries in what was a routine 2-0 win.

We set a good tempo early doors and never let them settle.

It was like watching the Burnley of the season before last, a campaign where we finished seventh as no-one needs reminding.  

It was also good to see Chris Wood get off the mark with a brace in the opening 15 minutes.

The big man has been playing well up front but, despite a very good pre-season, hadn’t scored.

All strikers are judged on goals and getting two – and having a chance of a hat-trick in the second half – will have done him the world of good moving forwards.

I said a couple of weeks ago that this run of games might be a good marker for the rest of the season and if we can get a positive result of either kind at Villa then we can think about pushing on even further.

I get the feeling it’s going to be one of those strange seasons, especially given the seemingly inconsistent nature of VAR.

A few of the big teams have already had a whinge about not getting decisions but in my book, it’s just levelling the playing field a bit.

That said, quite how we didn’t get a penalty on Saturday is beyond me.

Sean Dyche was baffled after the game and it’s easy to see why – Ashley Barnes was tripped as he burst into the box.

Referee David Coote waved away the Clarets appeals but there didn’t look to be any referral by VAR.

If these incidents aren’t being looked at then what’s the point of it?

It didn’t have much impact on the game thankfully but the Premier League is such a big business, it’d be disaster if a team was to be relegated because of a decision like that come the end of the campaign.