NIGEL Clough wants his team to close the gap on a clutch of clubs who are just above them in the Championship table.
The Brewers are fourth from bottom on 13 points. There are five clubs above them on between 16 and 19 points.
The Albion boss said: “What we need to do is stay in touch and not be adrift. The bottom four at the moment are three points away from the next group and we don’t want that to happen. We have to try and get in touch with that next group and that will be our aim before Christmas.”
Although Albion have two games against teams in the bottom three coming up, Clough says he isn’t targeting particular games for points.
“We can’t target games just because teams are at the bottom. We have just as much chance getting results at home to Sheffield United and away at Brentford as we do against Sunderland and Bolton. You can’t look at the league and thinks this is a good opportunity to get three points – the league is too unpredictable and it’s dangerous to do that.
“We aren’t playing Sheffield United and Brentford, who are both on good runs, at an ideal time but we have a victory last time out that we want to build on.”
Clough wants to make sure Albion are doing well enough so that strengthening in January can make an impact as it did last season.
“We have a couple of ideas of where we want to strengthen but there won’t be wholesale changes.
“We have already invested some of the money the club has made in the last season or so in Liam Boyce and Jamie Allen.”