Ten years of progress and Albion are still upwardly mobile - interview
Tuesday, 26th Aug 2014 23:47 by Clive Whittingham and Steve Eyley

Ahead of QPR’s annual farcical League Cup exit at the hands of a lower league opponent, LFW spoke to journalist and Burton Albion fan Steve Eyley about what we can expect of our Wednesday night opposition.

Assess last season for us? Above or below expectations?

SE: I was pleasantly surprised by how last season went because we lost our two flair players - Jacques Maghoma and Calvin Zola - during the summer of 2013, and you don't easily replace players like that at League Two level. So we didn't. Instead we went off on a slightly different tack.

We had been free-scoring but let a lot in. So we tightened up, losing some of our attacking flair in the process but making ourselves harder to beat.

There wasn't as much exciting forward play but we certainly let a lot fewer goals in and knew that if we scored one, or maybe even the dizzy heights of two goals, we would have enough to win.

So any concern that it would be anti-climactic was banished and we got to Wembley this time. Again, perhaps we could have done with a little more entertainment value along the way but it was a very open league and we were there or thereabouts for most of the campaign, so overall I was very pleased with how it went.

Another play-off appearance, but defeat for the second year running, is the feeling that promotion is getting closer or that the chance has been missed?

SE: The feeling is that we are inching closer to promotion having kept most of last year's side together. With a little tweaking and a bit more firepower we could be looking at a top three finish, which for a club of our side, often dismissed by our peers and the pundits as 'little Burton' would be a fantastic achievement. And of course we've made a good start already. Four wins and a draw from the first five matches.

What’s the general opinion of the job Gary Rowett is doing as manager? Given two near play-off misses, does he get linked with other jobs? Is he popular?

SE: Rowett's been a bit of a revelation. When he took over from Paul Peschisolido in March 2012, we had just had two seasons of flirting with relegation and then we immediately changed to being permanently camped in the top six without a period of mid-table nothingness in between.

He's a bit more defensive than Pesch, which you would expect from an ex-defender, but he can spot a player and has put together another good squad on the evidence of this season so far. He’d been the assistant manager previously and obviously looked at what worked under Pesch (and, to be fair, quite a bit of it did) and what didn't.

Rowett was popular when he took after, after nearly three seasons as assistant and a brief but impressive stint as a player when Nigel Clough was here.

I think there were some misgivings about promoting from within and in his caretaker stint at the end of the 2011-2012 season we suffered a few bad losses (7-1 at Bristol Rovers springs to mind) but he sorted it out over that summer. He ought to be linked with more jobs than he is, but fortunately he seems to have been operating under the radar, which is good for us.

What style of play can we expect from Burton? Lower league kick and rush, or some sort of mini-Germany?

SE: We try to play football on the floor. The passing game is what we TRY to do, sometimes successfully. There'd be no point in lumping it, mainly because we haven't got a big man up front but we favour the patient build up and players who can't pass (even defenders) won't last long.

Assess Burton’s summer transfer business for us — who came in and how have they started, who left and would you have wanted to keep any of them?

SE: Over the summer, we generally kept the side together. The main departure was popular central defender Marcus Holness to Tranmere — a good strong player but never a first choice due to the success of our first choice back four last season. Sad to see him go but understandable. The rest to go were fringe players or those the wrong side of 30.

Coming in are keeper Jon McLaughlin from Bradford, who's not put a foot wrong so far; central midfielder John Mousinho from Stevenage; impressive defender George Taft from Leicester; canny striker Stuart Beavon on a season-long loan from Preston, a real fox in the box who looks an excellent addition; left back/ midfielder Callum McFadzean, who has returned for a second loan spell from Sheffield United; and loping winger Lucas Akins from Stevenage, a real handful when he goes forward, reminiscent to me of Paulo Wanchope when he used to set off on one of his runs. He's probably been the pick of the new boys.

Losing striker Billy Kee to Scunthorpe this week was not ideal, as it leaves us a bit light upfront, but if we can bring in another quality striker and maybe a more creative midfielder, that should be enough for us until January.

Where is the team particularly strong and weak? Who should we be looking out for?

SE: The team's strength is definitely in defence and in its discipline and organisation. They're a tight unit who know what they're doing. On the early evidence of this season, we have a touch more attacking threat than last term but I'd still like to see a little bit more, so we can turn our possession into more goals.

Akins looks a real handful going forward, Ian Sharps and Shane Cansdell-Sheriff make a very useful 'little and large' centre half combo and Beavon looks like he will use his nous to score plenty of goals for us. I've also been very impressed with man mountain Taft at left back (he's normally a centre half) - really impressive on the ball and it will take a lot to beat him in the air.

What’s the financial situation at the club? Given the progress over the last decade there can be few dissenting voices towards chairman Ben Robinson?

SE: We seem to ticking along nicely from a financial position. Crowds have levelled out a bit despite our recent success but we are sensibly run under Ben Robinson, cut our cloth accordingly and fans know that there is a man at the helm with a long-term track record of success who has the best interests of his local club at heart. He's the man who brought Cloughie in for ten years, oversaw the building of the new stadium and has helped take us to the brink of League One. What would we have to complain about?

What would you say are the realistic short, medium and long term aims for the club?

SE: I think League One is a realistic short term ambition. Any higher than that would be daft to think about on our crowds at the mo. One step at a time.
But we've got a nice new-ish stadium (nine years old now but feels a lot newer), a talented young manager, a switched-on and sensible chairman and we train at St George's Park every day so we've got plenty going for us when it comes to selling the club to potential players.

After 59 years in non-league, getting into League Two (albeit in nerve-shredding manner) was a massive achievement. The thought of us going any higher would have unthinkable just a few years ago, but it's definitely achievable this season.

After 32 years of watching the Brewers, the last ten years or so have been an exciting ride so can't wait to see if we can get to the next level.

The Twitter @loftforwords, @SteveEyley1

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