NIGEL Clough is urging his players to put in a repeat performance from Saturday when Albion travel to Villa Park.
The Brewers face Aston Villa on Boxing Day after suffering a harsh defeat against Newcastle United that left them with nothing to show from an impressive team performance.
The Brewers boss said: “You have to put it into perspective. We were playing Newcastle and we have lads who have come up through League 2 and League 1 facing Premier League players and more than matching them. We have to recognise that and applaud them. It’s not very often you can say that in defeat but they deserve nothing but praise.
"If we ever get a break in the second half of the season we may get a point or three. We just need to keep up that level of performance and we must eventually get a bit of luck or a decision here or there.”
Despite the 2-1 defeat, Clough was delighted with the way his side took the game to Newcastle and more than matched the league leaders.
He said: “There was no point sitting back and letting Newcastle’s quality dictate things so we said let’s get Lucas Akins and Chris O’Grady up top and get the ball to them. But we didn’t just hoof it up there – we played and the nice thing was the quality of the performance as well as all the things you associate with us like the effort, energy and honesty.”