By Albatross
November 9 2003

Pools reward for their 4-0 victory over Whitby Town is another non-league opponent; however, an away game at Burton Albion is a long way from being the easiest tie we could have pulled out. Burton Albion will be profiled in more detail closer to our tie, but a quick potted history of the club is that they were formed in 1950 (Burton had in the past had two Football League teams, but there are no direct connections), and have in recent years risen steadily to reach the Nationwide Conference - where they are currently in 10th in their second season.

It was noticable that when the BBC went back to their pundits after the draw was made, ours was the tie that Mark Lawrenson immediately picked out. Does this mean we might get another shot at a live game? Possibly. The thing of course that makes this an interesting tie is the name of Clough - our ex-manager's son is player-manager of Burton, regarded as one of the brighter names amongst up-and-coming bosses, and someone that was also linked to the Pools job in the recent past.

That's far from the only link though - Cloughie's assistant Peter Taylor had been manager at Burton before being tempted away, and former Pools player Neil Warnock has also managed Burton.

It's not the easiest of ties for Pools, in part because it's away from home, and in part because Clough has assembled a side containing a few familiar (if ageing) names - as well as Nigel himself, Burton can boast the likes of Andy Sinton, Steve Chettle, Gary Crosby and Darren Wassall. Add in the fact that Burton made it to this stage by beating Torquay on their own ground, and this will be a potentially tricky tie.

However, Pools now have to concentrate on the league for the next few games - starting on Saturday against the last team to win at the Vic in a league game, Rushden and Diamonds. There are a few scores to settle with them, and with games away at Plymouth and home to Swindon there's a way to go before we can concentrate on the Brewers.