League One fixture of the week: Burton vs Gillingham

Burton face Gillingham in a crucial top of the table clash at the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday with both sides desperate to secure Championship football for next season.

Form 

The game sees two badly out of form sides come up against each other. Both Burton and Gillingham have been near the top of the table all year but have seen recent results falter as the season enters its climax.

Albion picked up their first league win in seven games with a convincing victory over Colchester last weekend. The winless run saw Nigel Clough’s side vacate top spot to Wigan and drop to just three points above third placed Walsall.

Gillingham are on a similar run of form having not won in their last six league games. Justin Edinburgh’s side fell to a concerning 3-2 loss at home to relegation threatened Shrewsbury at Priestfield last Saturday, which left the Gills a point outside of the play off places.

Team news 

Burton have had a difficult week with injuries after Mason Bennett and Tom Flanagan where ruled out for the final two games of the season.

With Bennett ruled out, Clough is likely to call upon  Tyler Walker who is currently Burton’s only fit striker.

Gillingham are expected to welcome back Doug Loft and Dominic Samuel after the duo returned over the past week.

However, Edinburgh is likely to be without Andrew Crofts, Adam El-Abd and Bradley Garmston.

What the manager’s have had to say 

During his midweek press conference Clough spoke of his hope for another brilliant atmosphere at the Pirelli Stadium, which he hopes will spur his side on to victory.

“It’s always even more exciting when both teams have got something to play for and that’s going to be the case here on Saturday and at Doncaster for the last game of the season.

“What we want from the supporters is exactly what we had against Wigan and to be fair previous to that as well. The atmosphere against Wigan, when you think there was 5,000 people – it felt like two or three times that number in the ground.

“I know it helps being a night game under floodlights, when the atmosphere seems more intense, but we can still go a long way to creating that on a Saturday afternoon.” said Clough.

Meanwhile Edinburgh told Gillingham’s official club website of the need to bounce back from last week’s disappointment.

The Scotsman said, “Burton don’t concede many goals, and we’ll have to be at our best to get something out the game, but we know what we need to do/

Final day fixtures 

Burton – Doncaster (a)

Gillingham – Millwall (h)