Brewers boss eager to get back to winning ways
Burton Albion manager Gary Rowett was keen to put Friday night's defeat at Bristol Rovers behind him and his team as they immediately began to prepare for another long midweek trip on Tuesday evening to relegation strugglers Torquay United at Plainmoor.The defeat at the Memorial Stadium was just a third defeat on the road for Rowett's men and after each previous defeat the team have responded in the right way with an improvement in both performance and result and Rowett has called for more of the same in Devon as Albion embark on the last third of their league campaign.
"The important thing now is how we react to Friday" Gary explained, "I have told the players that our little run is over and now we have to start another one over the next fourteen games. I think we have had only two defeats over the last fourteen or fifteen games and we have to make sure that if we can replicate that again then we are not going to be far off where we want to be come the end of the season. We just need to create one or two more things and win one or two more games than we have been doing and I am sure we will be fine.
Albion's week on the road has seen them take on fellow promotion chasers Rochdale, a Bristol Rovers side too near the bottom of the table for comfort and Tuesday's game comes against a Torquay team level on points with bottom of the table Northampton Town but Rowett insists it doesn't matter where the opposition are, it is more about what his players do on the pitch.
"There are no easy games at the moment" Gary continued, "Doesn't matter if you are playing a side near the top of the table or one near the bottom, you don't even tend to look at where they are in the table. You have seen that against Bristol, they are capable of winning their home games and we are capable of beating any side in this division if we do things right. The important thing is to concentrate on what we do. If we can just improve a little bit on the form that we have shown over the last five or six games. We haven't played too badly but we haven't played well enough to win enough games. That is what we need to improve on."
"I think we would have been happy to get anything from away games at Rochdale and Bristol because they are both very difficult places to go to and maybe four points from those two games was perhaps a little bit unrealistic. I would have maybe settled for a couple or three points from the two games but we have only got one and now we have to go to Torquay and try to make sure we beat them."
Left back Damien McCrory missed his first start of the season at the Memorial Stadium on Friday but Rowett is hopeful that his ever reliable full back will be available again along with the possibility of a return for a more long term absentee.
"Hopefully we will have Damien back on Tuesday" said Gary, "If he is fit then I think he will probably go straight back in. I think we missed him a bit at Bristol. Huss (Chris Hussey) tried his best out there and to be fair he hasnt played there for a while. Everyone was a bit below what they should have been but we should have everyone fit, Michael Symes could be available if I need him."
Billy Kee and Adam McGurk led the forward line on Friday with Gary Alexander dropping to the bench and having taken a breather the former Crawley striker could be in line to return to the side at Torquay as Rowett explained.
"Gaz played three games in a row having not played that much football recently and he will have benefitted from the rest and will give us the chance to change it again if we see fit on Tuesday. To an extent it doesnt matter what team we put out there, at the moment we are not quite playing at our best at the moment and we need to pick it up a bit."
After the original game, also scheduled for a Tuesday night, was postponed Gary confirmed that preparations, with Saturday's home game against Accrington in mind would be exactly the same as before.
"We will do everything as we tried to do last time. This time the players will have the weekend off to recover from tonight, we will come in Monday for a good training session and we will travel down to Torquay on Tuesday. It's not ideal as it's a four and a half hour journey which is not fantastic but we will stay over after the game and see if that helps with our preparations for the game after that."
"It is important to go down there now on Tuesday to get something out of the game to set us up nicely for the next home game which will hopefully get us back to where we want to be."