Clough: We’re close, but we have to finish the job

NIGEL CLOUGH takes Burton Albion to Preston tomorrow hoping to pull off a miraculous escape, but warned that failing to finish the job would hurt all the more after his side had looked doomed a month ago. Burton lost 5-0 at home to Hull on April 10 and it seemed that relegation was inevitable, but victories over Derby, Sunderland and Bolton have left them one more win from survival. ‘It’s like climbing Everest,’ said Clough. ‘You get 100 metres from the top and think, “I don’t have to go further — it’ll be the same view, so I won’t go the extra few yards. It’s too hard”. No. Get to the top and complete it.’ Clough revealed that Burton did not splash out on a hotel for the Deepdale trip until they were sure they could still escape the drop. ‘It costs a few thousand quid to stay in a hotel overnight, and we could save that for next season,’ said the Albion manager. ‘So until after the Bolton game we didn’t book anything.’ After their three wins in a row, Burton are 22nd in the Championship, short of safety on goal difference. They face a tense afternoon with Reading, Birmingham, Barnsley and Bolton also at risk of dropping into League One. Up in the play-off places, ASTON VILLA manager Steve Bruce will be in the dugout at Millwall despite grieving for the death of his mother, Sheenagh. Bruce’s son, Alex, who plays for Wigan, broke the news of his grandmother’s death yesterday and said: ‘My dad is in need of some privacy, but he will be back on the touchline on Sunday, as she would have wanted.’ Five LEEDS players will miss the club’s controversial tour of Burma. Captain Liam Cooper and midfielder Pablo Hernandez will stay at home because their wives are expecting babies. Tyler Roberts is out injured and Sweden defender Pontus Jansson and Macedonia winger Ezgjan Alioski have international commitments. Burma has areas plagued by the Zika virus, and the Foreign Office has recommended avoiding large swathes of the country, barring essential travel. Leeds have also been criticised by five local MPs, the shadow sports minister and Amnesty International for travelling to a nation currently engaged in ethnic cleansing.