Hard work the Burton way

The most uplifting story of the Sky Bet Championship season so far has not been one that has dominated the sports pages.

Burton Albion have hardly taken the league by storm; with two wins, three draws and two defeats, they currently occupy an unremarkable 15th spot in the table.

But for a better perspective of how they are doing it’s worth looking at the teams directly below them – Wolves, Leeds and Aston Villa.

Burton have not made any headline-grabbing signings, unable as they are to compete with Aston Villa’s near £50m transfer splurge, or the other millions chucked around by the likes of Newcastle. They can’t afford to – just 4,579 were there for their first home game of the season. The budget is tiny in comparison to others.

What they have done is shown that a tiny provincial club can fight its way up from the non-leagues and then compete at the upper ends of the professional game. Not with money or big crowds to sustain them, just a lot of hard work.

For this, Nigel Clough’s role has been pivotal. He joined the Brewers in 1998 as player-manager. Gradually he built a team at their humble Eton Park home capable of escaping the Northern Premier League. By the time Clough left for Derby in January 2009 the club had moved to the modernised Pirelli Stadium and they stood 13 points clear at the top of the Conference. League football was on its way.

Clough’s second spell began last December with the club well-placed for an historic promotion to the Championship. The pressure to deliver shouldn’t be underestimated after Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had led the club out of League Two and to the promotion places in League One, but Clough guided Burton home.

A solid, tight approach to the successful promotion campaign appeared to have given way to a new style on the opening day of the season when Burton were edged out in a seven-goal thriller at Nottingham Forest, a game they could have drawn 4-4 but for defender Ben Turner’s agonising …

continue reading in source www.skysports.com