NIGEL Clough says that staying in the Championship for a third successive season would be a bigger achievement than last season's survival.
The Brewers are currently in the bottom three with eight Championship games remaining. Burton’s last outing was a 3-1 defeat to league leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers, who were battling to stay in the second tier just a year ago.
Clough says that the increase in quality in teams such as Wolves was always going to make this season a much harder challenge, and that staying in the division be a greater achievement than last season.
He said: “If we stay in the league, it will be a bigger achievement than last season. We said at the start of the season that we knew it would be more difficult. We wanted to try to improve, that’s why we brought the likes of Sean Scannell and Joe Mason in on-loan in August, they didn’t work out. We haven’t quite managed to improve as we would have hoped.
“It will become even more of a mismatch. When we played Wolves 12 months ago it was not the same club that it is now.
“It has been hugely frustrating, the home form. For us to stand any chance we have to get something at home. I think last year, generally after Christmas, we didn’t play that well we just got the results. We nicked a goal here and there and we defended well.
“Our general football since the Reading game has been much better but we have not put the chances away. Sometimes, that is as simplistic as it is, we have conceded too many soft goals and not put away our chances.”