After the horror of successive 2-0 home defeats, Burton get the opportunity to play in the refined sea air that surrounds Home Park tomorrow in their return game against Plymouth Argyle.
Thankfully for Argyle they are in slightly ruder health than when they visited the Pirelli on 3rd September last year. That was the weekend when there were talks of players striking, wages going unpaid again and general disharmony around the club. Backed that day by a sizeable and noisy away following, it would be only the staunchest of Brewers supporters who would say that Plymouth didn`t deserve to go home with a point.
As it was, goals from Justin and Calvin got us out of jail, with Will Atkinson hitting an injury-time consolation strike for the visitors.
Despite the departure of Peter Reid and Carl Fletcher being installed as his replacement, fortune has so far failed to shine on Plymouth and they find themselves rock bottom of the table, three points and five goals behind 22nd paced Dagenham & Redbridge. Given Burton`s charity against lower placed sides, Argyle must be hoping they get an opportunity to rectify that tomorrow!
Enough said about our last game, but Plymouth come into this match on the back of a close-run 3-2 defeat up at Crewe last weekend. They will be missing Conor Hourihane, who was dismissed in that match, but there will be a return for Home Park legend Paul Wotton, who returns after spells with Southampton and Yeovil. Also possibly in the starting eleven could be Nick Chadwick, the much travelled striker back in his second spell with the club. He tweaked a hamstring during the defeat to Torquay on 2nd January, forcing him to miss the Crewe game, but will be hoping everything is ticketty-boo and he`ll get the ok to terrorise Burton`s suspect and paper-thin defence.
For Burton it is a case of kicking on from the two home defeats, but this is going to be made harder with the absence of Billy Kee once more through his ongoing groin injury. It is likely Justin will continue up front with Calvin, although it isn`t impossible that Adi Yussuf could get a start. Aaron Webster is also going to be missing, but he`ll be replaced by Danny Blanchett or, possibly, Andy Corbett, who is available again after suspension. On that basis expect to see Callum Driver continue at right back after his promising debut last Friday night.
Nathan Stanton also returns after his injury picked up at Morecambe on New Years Eve, but whether he`ll come in at the expense of Rhino or Tony James remains to be seen.
Elsewhere Peschisolido could spring a surprise as he mulls over who to drop into the midfield places. Pesch was interviewed prior to the match and he is decisively indecisive about who is going to be running out tomorrow: “I`m contemplating changes but whether I carry them out or not is another matter. On one hand you could say it`s time for a change, but you can also argue the case for a settled side” he told Rex Page at the Burton Mail.
Damned if he does, damned if he doesn`t.
So at least tomorrow Burton will be freed from the shackles of those nasty supporters who have greeted recent performances with catcalls and boos. It is beyond dispute that Burton have performed miserably for a large part of their last 180-minutes on the field, so tomorrow gives them an opportunity to shut the whiners up by securing a win away from home. Given that we are in action against the bottom placed team, we won`t be keeping our fingers crossed.
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