Rivals will be gunning for Albion, says John
FORMER Burton Albion favourite John McGrath believes teams could be gunning for the Brewers in League One this season.
The Brewers are back in the third tier following relegation in May alongside Sunderland and Barnsley, who lead the bookmakers’ odds to get promoted straight back to the Championship.
Albion, however, are outside the top 10 favourites for promotion before a ball has been kicked.
But McGrath - who spent six seasons at the Pirelli Stadium and helped Albion reach the Football League in 2009 - knows they will still be seen as a scalp this season following their spell in the Championship.
“Just seeing what I saw on Friday (when McGrath’s Mickleover Sports side beat Burton 2-1 in a friendly) and reading what I read in the press, Nigel has made some good signings, the boys from Scotland,” he said of Scott Fraser and David Templeton.
“For me, it’s important to get Liam Boyce back fit and flying because I think if they’d have had him a month earlier in the Championship last season, they might have stayed up.
“They are a team coming down from the Championship, so everyone will be gunning for them.
“It’s funny to say ‘Burton Albion getting relegated from the Championship’ because it’s little old Burton Albion.
“But, as a League One side, who says they can’t go up again? Why not?”
It is nine years since McGrath was part of the Brewers squad which broke into the League for the first time in the club’s history.
While the end of that 2008-09 campaign finished in famously dramatic and nervy circumstances, much of the success was down to a stunning 12-match winning run that stretched between November 1 - a 3-1 victory over Ebbsfleet - and January 17, when they triumphed 1-0 away to Grays Athletic.
Having experienced that run and the pressure that came with it, McGrath knows what it is like to be seen as a scalp - as the class of 201819 may also find following their drop out of the Championship.
“I think we probably weren’t considered a big gun until we went on that run,” added the ex-Albion midfielder.
“We won 12 games on the bounce, 36 points from 36, which is unheard of.
“When we went on that run, everybody wanted to beat us.
“We ended up getting over the line eventually but I think people stood up and said, ‘they’re a good side here.’
“But then when you start to put a Championship team from last season into League One, now people will start to look at you and think, ‘they’ve kept hold of Bucko (Jake Buxton), they’ve got Kyle McFadzean, they’ve kept this player and that player.’
“They are littered with talent. I for one hope they do go on and bounce back again.”