BURTON Albion will take on QPR at the Pirelli Stadium tonight in the Sky Bet Championship, and home turf could be an advantage to Nigel Clough’s men.
Despite losing two games at the Pirelli Stadium this season, Clough believes confidence is always high when playing at home after only just losing late on to Bristol City and after holding Brighton to 0-0 for 89 minutes before conceding a penalty.He said: “Confidence at home is always high, we know bigger teams don’t like to come here due to the smaller ground and pitch. We’ve played well in our two defeats here, so we have confidence being at home. Jimmy will know all about us as well as coming in pre-season.”
And Nigel Clough will know all about QPR’s physicality as they visited in a pre-season friendly back in July.
“We expect a physical game tomorrow, a bit of a different side to the one in the friendly. We’ve said all along that we have to work harder than everyone else, so we will get 11 out there who will work hard,” said Clough.
QPR got off to a flying start in the Sky Bet Championship having beat Leeds 3-0 in the opening game then beating Cardiff City 2-0 in the second game of the Championship but the R’s have recently came under a bit of pressure after no wins in the previous five games.
Nigel Clough said: “They had a great start won first few games and then lost a few but that is the Championship. They showed a great deal of character coming back against Birmingham who are always difficult. Everyone feels pressure, I think even Norwich did having won four on the spin before us. Sometimes better for sides who feel under pressure to go away from home.”
Height is a big advantage for QPR this season and that has been proven in their goal scoring stats, they have scored 11 goals from set-pieces so far this season.
The Brewers boss said: “They’ve scored all 11 goals from set-pieces this season so it is vitally important we don’t give too many away in and around the box.”
It’s another game under the lights at the Pirelli, games in which Nigel Clough believes help Burton Albion perform and pick up vital results.
He said: “We like night matches, our two best performances have been against Sheffield Wednesday and Derby here. Good atmosphere, under the lights we seem to enjoy it.”