Templeton will be late call for home test

DAVID Templeton is a doubt for Burton Albion’s home clash with Bristol Rovers on Saturday.

He suffered a shoulder injury in the 2-1 defeat against Southend United on October 2, ruling him out of the loss at Wycombe Wanderers last Saturday.

Nigel Clough is keen to get Templeton involved for his creativity on the left flank but he says they may have to wait until the day of the Bristol game to assess whether he can play.

Clough is more optimistic about the availability of Stephen Quinn (knee) for Saturday, though, after the former Republic of Ireland international sat out Tuesday’s Checkatrade Trophy game at Port Vale.

“We are hopeful with Stephen Quinn,” he said.

“It’s just the ongoing maintenance with his knee and just looking after him, as it is with John Brayford.

“They are similar situations, it’s difficult when we’ve got so many games in October.

“But it’s been set back a week by Brad’s injury.

“It’ll just be how he is with his back.

“He won’t do anything until Friday, training wise, so we’ll see how he is then.”

Evtimov has started each of Burton’s four League games since signing, winning one, drawing one and losing two.

He also played in the Carabao Cup win over Burnley.

But as Clough has previously said, once Collins - on loan until January - and Bywater are back fit, it could leave Albion with an over-populated goalkeeping department.

“I think Dimitar understands the situation,” added Clough.

“They’re not going to play in them all, so it’s picking and choosing which ones for those.

“David Templeton’s shoulder is still sore, so that will certainly go until Friday and maybe even until Saturday, because we’d love him involved here at home.

“We hope that (keeper) Bradley Collins’ back will keep improving and he might be involved as well.”

Jake Buxton has not featured for the Brewers since August due to a back injury. He was back in the

“If they all get fit, we can’t have four goalkeepers challenging for the first-team spot.

“I saw his face after the game on Saturday at Wycombe Wanderers and said to him, ‘I don’t think you’ll ever have played in a team that’s had so few chances created against them and conceded so many goals.’

“He literally is picking the ball out of the back of the net, that’s his main contribution in the game at the moment.

“He had hardly a shot to save Wycombe missed a good chance at the far post but missed the target but he didn’t have a shot to save and he’s on the losing side.

“It’s very, very harsh on him at the moment.” squad against Wycombe on Saturday and was then due to be involved against Port Vale, only for illness to rule him out.

“He’s working his way back into things but when you have a back problem, it’s very much day-to-day,” added Clough.

“Sometimes you’ll wake up and it feels fine and he’ll train, the next day it stiffens up again. But he trained well on Monday and was going to be involved at Port Vale - but illness robbed him of that chance.”