BURTON Albion are back in action at the Pirelli Stadium tomorrow night, as Birmingham City are the visitors in the Sky Bet Championship.
The last home match to be played at the Pirelli was the 2-0 victory over Cardiff City on Saturday 1 October. Since then, Nigel Clough’s men have had back-to-back away games and have picked up one point.Clough’s men have won three games at home this season, against Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County and Cardiff City, but are yet to win away from home in the Championship.
The Brewers boss said: “It’s different with the circumstances we have here at the Pirelli.
“We’ve just been watching the cricket downstairs, Bangladesh vs England, and I don’t really think anybody wants to go and play cricket in Bangladesh that’s why they have got a good home record. Although we’re not Bangladesh it’s a similar sort of principle, teams do not want to come here and they won’t be looking forward to it.
“We’ve done well at home so far this season and we’ve got to continue it. The only thing with Gary Rowett coming back is that he will know all the advantages and disadvantages of playing at the Pirelli so it’s a slightly different scenario.”
Gary Rowett was named assistant manager to Paul Peschisolido in May 2009 being being put in temporary charge of the team in 2012 following the departure of the Canadian manager. He was put in full time charge of Burton in May 2012 and, in his first season, led the Brewers to the League Two play-off final.
“He played a major part, the same when Jimmy came back the other week - you can’t deny the role they’ve played in the club being in the Championship and where we are now so he comes back and he’ll get a great ovation and it’s thoroughly deserved,” said Clough.
“He took the club in League two and got them on the verge of promotion and he set the standard of how they played over the few seasons.”
Clough added: “When points are at stake there is no romance. Birmingham as going as well as they are in the top six so they will want to stay in that and we’re desperate to stay away from that bottom three so there’s no sentimentality or no romance so we will both be scrapping away for the points.”