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The house that Ben built — Opposition Profile
Monday, 26th Sep 2016 11:23 by Clive Whittingham

A non-league side as recently as 2009, Burton Albion’s second successive promotion last season has them in the second tier for the first time thanks largely to the work of long-time chairman Ben Robinson.

Burton-upon-Trent used to be best known for its beer, and the silos of its breweries still dominate the area’s skyline.

The Staffordshire Market Town, which stretches itself along the main railway line that connects South Yorkshire and Derby with Birmingham and the South West, had twelve main breweries at one stage. Glance out of the train window now and you’ll see the tower and tanks of the Coors headquarters on these shores — brewing the Grolsch the marketing men would have you believe comes from Holland, and the Coors Light Jean-Claude Van Damme wants you to think is born in the heart of the Rocky Mountains.

Football wise, this town hadn’t really figured on the map until relatively recently. Only formed in 1950 and awkwardly positioned in the centre of the country, they played in both the Southern and Northern Leagues during half a century of non-league football. They reached the semi-final of the FA Trophy once, in 1975, and won the first leg away from home over the border at Derbyshire minnows Matlock Town to set themselves up for a first ever trip to Wembley only to lose the second leg at home 2-0.

When they did make the final, in 1987, they lot a replay to Kidderminster at West Brom's Hawthorns after a 0-0 draw under the twin towers.

That was pretty much as good as it got.

Then, in 1998, Nigel Clough, still only 32 and a fine player at Manchester City, took the unusual step of applying for the vacant managerial position here. Chairman at the time Ben Robinson said he thought the application was a wind up.

Burton had appointed high profile managers before — Neil Warnock spent time here during the 1980s — but the arrival of Clough at a time when television companies were snapping up live football rights at such a rate that even the Conference games were starting to feature on Sky Sports gave the club exposure it had never previously enjoyed. I remember watching an early round cup match from the club’s old Eton Park Ground — primarily to see our old charge Andy Sinton who was winding down his career on Albion’s left wing — and remarking that the club seemed to have been renamed Nigel Clough’s Burton Albion without anybody noticing or signing off on the decision.

Clough stayed with the Brewers for ten years, making more than 200 appearances as a player, and building the team steadily as a manager cutting his teeth. He rescued them initially from a relegation scrap in the Dr Martens Premier Division and then guided them to two second placed finishes at that level before they switched to the Unibond League in 2001 following a reorganisation of the league structure and promptly won the title scoring more than 100 goals. In the Conference they were feared opposition, reaching the play-offs but losing to Cambridge in one of several near misses.

But it’s the chairman’s story which is even more remarkable than the tale of the talented striker who gave it all up to manage his local non-league side ostensibly so he could take his children to school every day and watch them grow up — Clough would regularly cite this as his reason for turning down jobs at Derby County and elsewhere during his decade with Burton.

Ben Robinson, a local insurance broker, first joined Albion in 1974 as a board member charged with raising extra sponsorship funds. He was chairman during Warnock’s time at the club in the 1980s and then returned to the role during the 1990s when the club had fallen on hard times. It’s Robinson’s astute, patient, frugal, sensible running of things at a time when football clubs of all shapes and sizes are getting carried away and spending beyond their means in pursuit of exactly the sort of success Burton Albion have enjoyed that has made all this possible.

Robinson heaps all the praise on Clough. Although he did eventually leave for Derby, as the club stood on the cusp of the Football League, and has subsequently been at Sheffield United, Robinson mentioned him in a speech after the team had won promotion from League Two under Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink 18 months ago, six years and three Burton managers since he left the club.

But it was Robinson who completed the purchase of land belonging to tyre maker Pirelli on which Burton’s shiny new stadium stands today. That move lifted the then-Conference side to another level paving the way for the two pivotal moments in its recent history.

The first, in January 2006, was a home draw against Manchester United in the FA Cup. In front of a full house and a live televisions audience Clough’s side held United to a goalless draw to earn a replay at Old Trafford. The gate receipts from the two games paid off the debt on the £7m Pirelli Stadium, as well as attracting increased local support from a proud town, and enabled Burton to finally push on for the Football League for the first time in their history.

That promotion finally came in 2008/09 but wasn’t without its complications. Clough was finally tempted away by Derby in January that season after a first half of the campaign in which they’d only lost four times — all of them away from home — and opened up a 19 point gap at the top of the table. The league’s sponsors, Blue Square, actually paid out on Burton Albion league winner bets in February.

But the departure of Clough, and arrival of caretaker boss Roy McFarlane, heralded a collapse even Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United would have raised eyebrows at. Burton completely folded. From November 1, in all competitions, they won 17 and drew three of 21 matches. After that, starting with a draw at Woking on February 28, they lost eight and drew two of their final 14 games including five defeats from six games to finish the campaign. Ultimately, rather sheepishly, they fell over the line on the very last day with a 2-1 defeat at Torquay United, sealing promotion only because Cambridge United drew at Altrincham and finish two points behind.

A real shame in many ways, because Robinson, Burton and Clough deserved to canter over the line that season and celebrate a remarkable decade of work. Their initial forays into league football, under the rookie management of one-time QPR loanee Paul Peschisolido, were tough as well and a return to the Conference looked more likely than any further forward momentum.

But when Robinson sacked the Canadian in March 2012 after a run of 16 games without a win and eight straight defeats — the only time he’s dismissed a manager in 35 years on the club’s board — and appointed his assistant Gary Rowett, a handy former utility player with Leicester and Derby among others, it sparked another change for the better.

Initially results were poor — they lost 7-1 at Bristol Rovers for a kick off — but Rowett had them in the League Two play-offs two seasons running after that. They were beaten in the semi-finals by eventual winners Bradford in 2013, and then the final at Wembley against big-spending Fleetwood in 2014.

The last time QPR played on this ground — the club’s only competitive meeting so far — saw League Two Albion beat Premier League QPR 1-0 in the League Cup. Harry Redknapp’s attitude to cup matches, and away matches in general (hell, his attitude to managing QPR in general) was well known, but that was some result for Burton who subsequently moved off towards a promotion from League Two.

That promotion campaign wasn’t derailed by Rowett being tempted away to Birmingham, where he’s subsequently succeeded under huge financial constraints and boardroom turmoil to become one of the hotter managerial properties in the game. You could actually get not outlandish odds on him to be the England manager before Big Fat Sam’s Big Fat coronation during the summer.

Robinson turned to Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, the former Chelsea and Leeds Dutch international, which seemed a rather left field and maverick appointment for a League Two side in a middle of the road town with no history of league football behind it and no money to spend to further progress it. But Hasselbaink had shown, by coaching at Woking and Forest, then going to Belgium to manager Royal Antwerp, that he was keen to learn his managerial trade rather than relying on his name and playing career to guarantee him a top flight appointment — cough, Tim Sherwood.

Hasselbaink took Rowett’s side, tightened its defence still further, and won the title at a canter with just two defeats in the final 27 league matches. That achievement didn’t go unnoticed elsewhere. When Burton started the following season at their highest level ever, in a division that included vastly bigger clubs and budgets than their own such as Sheffield United, Coventry, Wigan and Bradford, with just two defeats from their first 11 league games, QPR came calling for Haselbaink.

With Nigel Clough now available following a tough spell at Bramall Lane, the stage was set for his return. But the running theme here is Robinson. For QPR, the club Hasselbaink joined, the thirst for the constant rotation of managers from sections of the support isn’t backed by results — QPR change their manager frequently, three in the last two years alone, but never get a good deal better for it. Burton are now seeing their managers poached but as Rowett left, and then Hasselbaink, they never skipped a beat.

A club with its facilities and infrastructure in order — they train at England’s St George’s Park — and an experienced chairman who knows exactly what he’s doing and can be realistically achieved, doesn’t have the manager as the be all and end all. They’re like a lower league Swansea in that regard: it doesn’t matter as managers come and go, because everything else is right. At QPR, despite everybody’s apparent thirst to have somebody to blame, it doesn’t really matter who the manager is or how many times you change him, because so much else is wrong, though Les Ferdinand and Lee Hoos are making a better fist than most of changing that.

Clough promoted them again last year, at the first time of asking. If anything, he added an extra attacking edge that had been missing.

And so here they are, in a ground that holds 7,000 with terraces on three sides, competing in the same division as Newcastle, Aston Villa and Norwich City. Two of the divisions so-called big names, Derby and Sheff Wed, have already been beaten. And there’s been no “bonus games” and “only here for the experience” attitude from the Brewers either. Don’t think they’ve been parking ten men behind the ball and trying to hold out, they’ve been going 3-5-2 and trying to score goals — even in defeat, they’ve often scored a few of their own — 4-3 at Forest on day one typical.

Burton, Robinson, is a story worth of far more coverage than it’s getting. They were the main match on the highlights programme in weekend one at Forest, but that surely should have been a televised match — Nigel Clough going back to the City Ground, Burton Albion’s first ever Championship match, or fucking Leeds United on the television again at QPR?

Their win against Derby was shown but we’re hearing and seeing precious little of what is a remarkable story. As another small example, Action Images the picture agency we use has been to four Burton Albion matches this season including their League Cup tie with Liverpool where they offered 19 separate shots of Jurgen Klopp among the collection for the night. They’ve been to seven QPR games.

QPR, and Hasselbaink on his return, will hope they’re not quite as ripe to be another chapter in that story as they look.

Read the thoughts of Burton Albion regular Steve Eyley in this week’s fan interview by clicking here.

The Twitter @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

Action Images



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QPRski added 12:09 - Sep 26
A great success story and I really wish them well - although I hope they lose a very entertaining game on Tuesday.
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TacticalR added 14:28 - Sep 26
Thanks for your opposition profile. I think you are trying to tell us something :)

Given what Burton have achieved they have really gone under the radar. It sounds like not having a history (and the expectations that go with that) has actually been a blessing. Certainly the polar opposite of QPR.

Even given the Robinson guiding the ship, it is unusual for someone like Clough to have spent such a long time there. Also good to be reminded that Hasselbaink has served a managerial apprenticeship (albeit a short one) and is not just a big name who has been parachuted in.
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simmo added 14:40 - Sep 26
Brilliant - Tomorrow aside you'd be hard pressed to find any QPR fans that don't wish them every bit of success. Not that they need our help!
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hacker added 12:11 - Sep 27
Good article but I think it is a tad harsh on Pesch not to mention any of his successes. He played exciting football and made some very good signings for the club: Maghoma, Zola, Kee, Legzdins, Phillips, Deano, Winnall, James Collins, Parkes, Penn, Boerts....

Early 2012 was the winter of discontent:
We were in 5th place from 19-Nov-2011 to 30-Dec-2011
Billy injured his groin in Nov. and played a part in 5 part games until his season finished on Feb.25th. Zola was our only striker.

Feb 25th - Mar 17th - 6 games in 20 days, 0 pts -14GD, and Pesch is sacked. When a team is on the slippery slope you can't fire the players so the manager has to go.

From Mar 20th, Over the final 10 games of that season:
11 points, -12GD
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