Burton Albion Football Club

Burton Albion manager Gary Rowett admits that the month ahead is an important time of the year, but won’t necessarily make or break their season.

Rowett spoke following Albion’s 2-1 home win over Accrington Stanley – a result that kicked off a month in which the Brewers play seven games.

“One or two of the other results went our way yesterday. Rochdale won comfortably at home against a good side, which shows how good our point there was.

“It was about winning yesterday, and that’s all we spoke about. I told the players that it was a big game as it set us up for the month ahead if we win. Had we lost it we may have got a big edgy and nervous but we go to Oxford full of encouragement following Saturday’s game.

“It’s difficult to say whether March will make or break our season. Once you turn the corner of the year, every month becomes huge and every game one where you can move up or move down a place. 

“You could argue that any seven games are make or break if you don’t get good results. It’s an important month and it’s important that we build on Saturday’s three points,” said Rowett.

Rowett will have plenty of selection dilemmas to make ahead of next Saturday’s game, with a full squad to choose from following Michael Symes’ return from injury.

“I think it’s huge but there’s a flip side to the coin. It’s great that we have so many to choose from although there will be players out of the squad that haven’t done much wrong. 

“You can only do that for so long without players feeling like they want to be involved. It’s great that we have plenty of bodies, but you always have players that want to play, and possibly see those opportunities elsewhere, and some players may go out on loan,” Rowett said.

Rowett is pleased with the competitive nature of his squad, and wants to add to it ith young players from the club’s academy.

“You want as many good players available as you can. We have a really healthy competitive squad of 23 players, and that gives you the opportunity to let some go and still be alright. We’ve also got some really good young players coming through that I want to get involved. 

“We saw it with Matty Palmer that giving him two or three games at the end of the season shows us whether they can handle it. They’ll play a big part over the next two or three years and we’re pleased with how things are going.”