Games between the Brewers and the Bulls are rarely dull affairs. Last season the two sides produced five goals at the Pirelli Stadium and seven goals at Edgar Street. Aaron Webster, who should mark his 500th game in a Brewers shirt, was the match winner at Burton last November after 2 goals from Shaun Harrad had been cancelled out by two strikes from Leon Constantine. All the goals came in the second half in what proved to be a thriller. The game at Edgar Street was even more stunning, if you were a Brewers fan, as Albion went a goal up through Shaun Harrad only to find themselves 3-1 down early in the second half. Aaron Webster was to become a central figure in the second half, scoring the equaliser half way through the second half before being shown a red card early in stoppage time. The excitement did not end there as former Bulls favourite, Tony James, rose to head home his first Brewers goal six minutes into stoppage time.
In recent times Albion have had a good home record against the Bulls winning three of the four home matches during the two sides games in the Football Conference. Christian Moore scored both goals in a 2-0 victory in 2002/03 and a year later Robbie Talbot notched the Brewers only Conference hat-trick in a stunning 4-1 victory at Eton Park. A 3-0 victory inspired by goals from Kris Taylor (prior to his move to Hereford), Craig Dudley and Jon Shaw (both penalties) saw Albion extend their run against the visitors although Hereford did secure a single goal victory in their promotion season.
Hereford will be dangerous opponents this weekend as they look to turn around a disappointing start to the campaign. Under new manager Simon Davey (who steered relegated Darlington to victory at the Pirelli Stadium on Easter Saturday) they won their opening fixture of the season away at Crewe with new defender Janos Kovacs scoring the only goal of the game. Since then though Hereford have picked up a point from a goalless draw with Gillingham and slipped to consecutive defeats to highly fancied Chesterfield and Rotherham United without netting in either game.
Albion will come up against former loan signing O'Neil Thompson who has now joined the Bulls on a loan deal to link up with his former Barnsley manager.
MAN IN THE MIDDLE
Surrey based Darren Sheldrake is the man charged with keeping order at the Pirelli Stadium this weekend. This is Darren's second season on the Football League list and he marked his debut season with a record of 54 yellow cards and four red cards in his 24 matches in the middle. Included in those games was Albion's 5-2 defeat at Saltergate, a game that most Brewers fans would rather forget. A more memorable game involving Darren would have to be the 5-0 Conference victory at Weymouth in Albion's promotion season when Albion got back to winning ways after a disappointing run of results. Darren has only refereed once so far this season, his opening game of the campaign coming in Tuesday's Johnstones Paint Trophy fixture between Swindon Town and Southampton.
