Burton at home Saturday 31st August

[GrangeParkCobbler]

Its the Brewers of Burton who make the trip down the M1 to face The Cobblers at Sixfields on Saturday for the fourth round of league fixtures.
Teyn sit in 10th place with a W1 D1 L1 record, Burton are in 19th on two points, winless in the League but with two draws to their name. On opening day they conceded in the last four minutes to Lincoln who won by the odd goal in five, then the Brewers suffered a heavy 0-4 defeat at home to Blackpool in the Carabao Cup. They've steadied the ship a little since then with a 3-3 draw at Mansfield and a 0-0 draw with Stevenage last time out, they have also recorded a 3-1 win over Leicester's U21 side in the Trophy.
The 5000 plus crowd on opening day was the polar opposite to the attendance of just 473 for that Trophy match.

Burton are relative newcomers to the Football League, only gaining promotion in 2009, but in those 15 years since they have got to spend two years in the Championship. Being in the centre of the Country geographically it was not a great surprise to see that they have played in both the Northern Premier League and Southern Premier League, they transferred twice between the two, the last instance seeing them win the Northern Premier League in 2002 with a whopping 104 points. Under the stewardship of Nigel Clough they improved season by season and after a playoff defeat in 2008 they won the league the next season to gain their league place. In 2015 they won League 2 to gain their first EFL promotion, and the following season finished runners up in League 1 to get that Championship place. They did all this on average gates of 3000-4000. Relegation back to League 1 came in 2018 and they have resided there ever since. Last season saw a 20th placed finish, two points above the drop.

Shaun Harrad is someone who played for both sides, he scored 21 goals in the 2009/10 season for Burton before a £35k move to Sixfields saw him score 6 in 18 for us.

I've already mentioned Nigel Clough, he had two spells in charge of the club totalling 727 games over those 15 seasons, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is another who has had two spells there, only 140 games for him between spells with QPR and of course the Cobblers. Mark Robinson is the current manager, he took over in the summer after 14 months with AFC Wimbledon a couple of years prior.

Billy Bodin leads the scoring charts so far this season, the former Cobbler has three league goals to his name having joined from Oxford in the summer. Bodin failed to make a league start with us back in 2015 but has had more successful spells since at Bristol Rovers and Oxford. His form at Rovers saw him make a 1/2 million pound move to Preston but just three league goals in 39 league appearances over a couple of seasons saw him released. Another forward to join the Brewers fold in the summer was Danilo Orsi, he scored 25 goals last season for playoff winners Crawley including a hattrick against MK in the semi and he was also on the scoresheet in the final win over Crewe at Wembley.

A small sample in the head to head between the two clubs, just 17 games since our first meeting in 2009. Even stevens so far with 7 wins for each team and three draws. Last season saw us do the double with 2-0 wins home and away, that home win coming in November with Marc Leonard and Sam Hoskins scoring second half goals in front of a crowd of 6640. We went and won the return in February with Leonard again and Pinnock this time our scorers, both in the first half.
Burton have won four of their previous 8 meetings at Sixfields, their last coming in 2021 in a game played behind closed doors. A 2-0 win that day matched their biggest winning margin of two goals, the same as ours over them!

Ben Atkinson is the chosen one in the centre for the game on Saturday. A second year ELF ref who seems to like his cards, he dished out 137 yellow and 9 reds in just 27 games last season, seven yellows in two so far this. He handled our 4-3 defeat at Leyton Orient last season as well as Burtons 2-1 home defeat to Stevenage a couple of months earlier.

[AYelvertoftCobbler]

https://www.staffordshire-live.co.uk/sport/football/brewers-fans-taken-bodin-immediately-9500218

[itsme]

If memory serves me right when we had Bodin he ahd only just come back from a serious injury

[SC Cobbler]

If memory serves me right when we had Bodin he ahd only just come back from a serious injury

Not bad having Bodin, Rico, Collins, Marquis, Toney and Calvert-Lewin all with us within a similar period!

[guest3694]

Not bad having Bodin, Rico, Collins, Marquis, Toney and Calvert-Lewin all with us within a similar period!

Don’t forget the prolific Diego De Girolamo

[west stand oap]

Burton conceded 10 goals in their first 3 games and although they kept a clean sheet in the borefest 0-0 draw with Stevenage they looked suspect at the back. In that game Orsi who was prolific at Crawley was poor and I suspect he might turn into a 1 season wonder, Bodin looked more likely to produce something but in the end they did not have a shot on target all game. Burton's squad has had a major upheaval with 20 new signings which is probably more than any other team in the EFL.

I doubt that we will see much change to last weeks starting 11 but Willis is obviously a doubt and Baldwin may replace him. Fosu will probably get about 60 minutes before he has to be replaced with McCarron coming on. This is the sort of game we must be targeting for 3 points and it will be disappointing if we don't get them. After not having a sub 6000 Saturday crowd all of last season we could have our second of this season as I don't expect the travelling support will be as good as Exeter's.

[WadeyCobbler]

Burton have some injuries and the new squad hasn’t settled so this could be the perfect time to play them. I fancy a 2-0 win with Hoskins opening his account for the season and a red card for the Brewers. A sub-6000 crowd again likely with about 350 from Burton,

[Melbourne Cobbler]

We are due to click, I think we will get 3 but think they might nick one. As a result your resident antipodean soothsayer predicts 3-1.

[west stand oap]

Can we get our first clean sheet of the season?

[Mysterious Curle]

Fosu and Mbete out injured… as is Willis.

[Tabasco Kid]

[Dr Feelgood]

 I have a very good feeling about today!!

[Bingers]

I have a very good feeling about today!!

That's exactly what I wanted to hear. We've got this League in the bag.

[Baldy]

I have a very good feeling about today!!

You no what, so do I. It's in the bag!!!

[Bingers]

You no what, so do I. It's in the bag!!!

Hurrah!

[Baldy]

Hurrah!

hello bingers

[Dr Feelgood]

Ok here we go.
I truly believe theres a goal in us

[Bingers]

hello bingers

Good afternoon, I hope Norfolk is as sunny as Yorkshire is this fine afternoon.

[Bingers]

Good news, I have just dipped under the 250 000th place in the queue for Oasis tickets from a starting place of 335000+. These tickets are in the bag!

[Mysterious Curle]

We don’t look very good going forward.