Rowett looking for reaction at Northampton
Burton Albion manager Gary Rowett has urged his side to get back to what they do best as the Brewers travel to Northampton Town on Saturday.
After a blistering start to the season, Albion have lost three of their last four league games, and exited the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at the hands of Doncaster Rovers in midweek.
Rowett, however, took the positives from the cup exit and now wants to focus on the league.
“It’s been a tough week and a tough three or four games. The biggest thing for me from the cup game was to get Damien McCrory and Lee Bell on for 45 minutes. I was pleased with bits of the game, but I wasn’t pleased with some parts including the three goals.
“We’ve been limited in terms of what we can do for Saturday because of the midweek game, which is sometimes an issue but we have to deal with it. We’ve had something like 15 games in nine weeks so it limits what you can do slightly,” Rowett said.
Whilst Rowett feels a change in form was going to happen, his main focus now is on getting back on the right track, starting at Sixfields on Saturday.
“You have to work a lot harder as staff, and that’s how it should be. I always pre-empted a fall from grace and we take the plaudits when we’re winning games, but you know a blip is round the corner. I probably didn’t expect it to be so quick and to then lose three league games out of four.
“We’re disappointed with lots of aspects of that, but that’s the time when you need to work harder and find solutions and try and see what obvious problems there are.
“The biggest difficulty is that we’ve been so defensively strong for 18 months, and we’ve come away from that in the last four games and that’s caused us the most reason to really analyse what we’re doing.
“We’ll work hard and we’ll come out of it one way or the other and it’s a really good test for us,” he added.
The recent defeats have not had an adverse effect on Albion’s league standing. They remain in third place and only a point from the top of the table – a positive aspect Rowett is focusing on.
“There are lots of times in my career where I wish I’d had a horrendous run of form and still be third in the league and a point off the top. The biggest issue is the perception and the fear that we’ve started so well and that we’re going to waste it but continuing this form.
“Chesterfield started last season very similarly to us then went seven games without winning. They stuck to their beliefs, kept going and they came out the other side.
“We haven’t played how we like to have done and haven’t got the results we wanted but if we had, we’d have won 13 out of 14 and that’s a bit unrealistic. We’ll take it on the chin and come out fighting,” said Rowett.
With Northampton also occupying a top 7 place ahead of the game, Rowett wants to see his side getting back to what earned them success throughout the early stages of the campaign.
“The opposition are relevant to us, but it’s about us doing what we do well and getting back to what we’ve done well, which has earned us seven wins this season.”