Albion still paying for early setbacks
BEN Turner says Burton Albion are still making up ground from their sluggish start to life back in League One.
The Brewers - who sit 14th in the table ahead of tomorrow’s trip to mid-table rivals Fleetwood Town lost four of their first five games in the season.
A 3-1 defeat to Oxford United in the fifth of those left them in the relegation zone at the end of August and all four of the teams to beat Burton in that sequence currently sit below them in the division.
Since the start of September, Albion have won seven, lost five and drawn three matches in the League.
Despite stringing together 13 points from a run of six matches in October and November, inconsistency has prevented them from yet moving into the top half.
And Turner says his side are still keen to rectify the false start that put them on the back foot from the early stages of the season.
“We’ve spoken about it - we certainly haven’t won back-to-back games to a point where we’re going to get in the play-offs and that’s just a fact,” said the Albion defender. “So we have to put that right. “The first five games is something we look back on, whether it was the hangover from the relegation or adjusting to the style of this League.
“We probably didn’t have the squad that we now have together early enough to be at our best for the first five games of the season.
“Things moved slowly. The players who went went straightaway and the players we brought in to make us back into a strong squad came late, so we didn’t have our best squad.
“But we look back at it and no-one can really explain it.
“During the first five games, we had Rochdale at home, where we played absolutely fine and it was just typical of us, we just didn’t get the result.
“Bradford City away was one of the best we’ve played but we didn’t win the game. Gillingham away, we deserved nothing and we got nothing - but to lose four out of the five, it’s a mystery even looking back.
“But it has happened, so at some point we have to win four out of five to put ourselves right back up there.”
The Brewers can continue that bid at Fleetwood, another side whose campaign has been dogged by upand-down form.
With Albion back to winning ways against Shrewsbury Town last weekend and six League games to come in the next month, the time could be right for producing an eye-catching run of form.
But Turner says they are capable of doing it at any time.
“Every period is a chance because before you start a game, you can win it,” added the ex-Cardiff City man.
“We’ve won one now against Shrewsbury Town, can we win the next one?
“Absolutely we can but it’s whether we will. That’s down to us.”