Burton Albion Football Club

Gary Rowett has further bolstered the Burton Albion squad with the addition of goalkeepers Ross Atkins and Dean Lyness. Burton have agreed a new loan deal with Derby County for Atkins after he spent the entire 2011/12 season at the Pirelli Stadium. 

Former Kidderminster, Hearts and Birmingham City keeper Lyness has signed a two year contract with the club. Both players have taken a full part in pre season so far with Burton Albion and have already appeared in the friendly matches against Aston Villa, Gresley FC and Ilkeston FC.

Speaking ahead of Burton Albion’s fixture with Derby County on Saturday Atkins said, ‘I’m really looking forward to the new season. I’ve seen what Gary has done and the changes that have been made with the fresh faces, everybody’s really positive and raring to go. I had no hesitations to come back here. Gary spoke to me at the end of last season and Derby spoke to me over the summer to see if that was what I wanted to do and I said yes straight away.

‘Training has been going really well. Both Dean and me have come back really fit and Pooley has been pushing us. Training has been brilliant since we’ve been back.

‘Looking back over last season I was inconsistent as well as the team was which for me was disappointing. I’ll learn from that for this season and hopefully we won’t have that spell like we did last season. 

‘It was tough for everybody involved last season. We weren’t playing well and the fans weren’t happy and rightly so. We weren’t producing the performances that we were at the start of the season. It was hard to explain as well as nothing had really changed. We’ll keep working hard now and hopefully have a more solid and consistent season and see where we are at the end of it.

‘There’s obviously competition between me and Dean but we don’t look at it like that, whoever plays will play, we don’t pick the team. We work together and support each other. It’s up to us to take our opportunities which is the same for everyone and last year perhaps we didn’t quite have that competition. This year we have a very strong squad and we’ll see what happens when the season starts.’

After signing his two year contract Lyness said, ‘I’m really excited and I’m delighted to put pen to paper on a two year deal. As soon as Gary Rowett and Pooley picked up the phone I wanted to come here and get going.

‘The moves I’ve had and moving away from home from a young age has been a massive part of my career and I feel that I’ve learnt a lot. I’ve had to live on my own and take care of myself at 16, I really enjoyed it and it’s made me a better person. I can’t wait to get started now.

‘Pooley obviously has a lot of experience in the game. I’ve worked with him before so I know exactly how he works.

‘I’ve come in and I want to play games, the both of us are hungry to be on the pitch and that will bring the best out of both of us and benefit the team which is the most important thing. As goalkeepers you have the tough times and the good times together and push each other on.’