Burton Albion and Fleetwood Town are two teams hoping to finish the season inside the top six in Sky Bet League One.

Albion come into the fixture off the back of an extremely disappointing FA Cup exit at the hands of Northampton Town. Whereas Fleetwood met their demise in the Leasing.com Trophy, losing on penalties to Accrington Stanley.

  • Team news

The Brewers will continue to be without Kieran Wallace. The Albion player has been out of action since December 29th with an illness.

There is some positive news however, as on-loan Everton attacking winger Nathan Broadhead has returned to training at St George's Park. With the possibility of the Welshman returning to the match-day squad in time for Fleetwood.

Fleetwood are without any major injury concerns. Lewie Coyle, Kyle Dempsey and Paddy Madden all managed to get minutes under their belts, after coming off the bench in the defeat to Accrington, and are ready to return to league action once again.

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Managers thoughts:

Burton Albion:

Speaking to the club's official website, Burton manager Nigel Clough is adamant his side must improve their consistency if they are to build a play-off push, and that it all starts against tough opposition in Fleetwood Town: 

"With the backing Fleetwood have got they are more than capable of reaching that top six. With Paddy Madden, Paul Coutts and Ched Evans they have that quality in the right areas to achieve that.

“Not many teams have gone on a really good run which is why you see it so bunched up.

“We should have had an unbeaten run over Christmas. We got three victories, but it should have been ten points not nine and that’s what we have to look at over the next six weeks – trying to put an unbeaten run together."

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Fleetwood Town:

Speaking to the club's official website, Fleetwood's first team coach Barry Nicholson understands the importance of a good performance at the weekend:

“We know Burton, we know what they’re all about. They’re a really aggressive team that press without the ball, so if we’re not right it’ll be a difficult afternoon for us. We’ll concentrate on what we do well and hopefully go into the game with the right mindset and confidence to get the three points.

“It’ll be no easy game, we’ve got to be ready for them because there will be a response.

“We’ve been really pleased with the way we’ve played over the Christmas period but just disappointed that we’re not picking up enough points that our play deserved.

“To get that clean sheet is so important for us because we know with the fire power, we have at the top end of the pitch we’ll keep scoring goals.”

Previous meetings:

It'll be the away side which boasts the best record between the two sides come kick-off. Fleetwood have won three of their four trips to the Pirelli Stadium, and all three points on Saturday will push them further into play-off contention. 

There is fierce rivalry between the two sides. Back in 2014, Fleetwood Town gained promotion to Sky Bet League One, after an Antoni Sarcevic free-kick floated past a poorly positioned Dean Lyness in the Albion goal, earning the Cod Army a 0-1 victory on Wembley turf.

Kick off is at 15:00 at the Pirelli Stadium. 

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