Burton v Newcastle - Match Preview

One of the most talked about fixtures of the Championship season. Not because of the historically big clubs involved, or the cliche’d 6 pointer at the top or the bottom of the table. Instead, it’s because Newcastle United, familiar (sort of) with Champions League football, come up against Burton Albion, more familiar with the conference play offs. It also just happens to be the team located where I was born.

Just a few years ago, Burton Albion were playing in the Conference, non-league football league, unable to even think about getting a place in league football. I remember going to a couple of games at their old ground, which probably held about 4,000. There’s a 'Co-Op' on that site now; not a string of retail shops, not a massive supermarket, a singular Co-Op.

After being promoted to League 2, it took them a couple of seasons to find their feet, before eventually being promoted to League 1 at the end of the 2014/15 season. Immediately, and astonishingly, they were promoted again, to the Championship, at the end of the 2015/16 season, finishing in second place after Hasselbaink left them for the dizzy heights of QPR, which he got sacked from.

They’ve not had a great start to the Championship, and currently sitting in 21st place. However, I don’t think they’re to be taken for granted as an easy win. They’ve beaten Derby at home this season, and generally haven’t played too badly, getting unlucky towards the end of games and losing 1-0.

If we assume we’re going to win this one, we could easily become unstuck and get beaten - we all know we have a tendency to drop our levels on the odd occasion (Blackburn, Wolves etc). I can see us winning it, but it not being the easy victory that many others seem to think it’s going to be.

Burton can be tough. I’m going with a 0-1 Newcastle win.