By Albatross
December 3 2003

Pools Online takes a closer look at Hartlepool United's FA Cup opponents Burton Albion - including a potted history of soccer in the town, the current club, links between the two clubs, and of course the most famous export from the town - Beer.... Burton has had in it's time two clubs in the Football League, but neither can be considered to be related to the current club. First to attain League Status were Burton Swifts, who were elected to Division 2 in 1892. Two years later they were joined by Burton Wanderers. Wanderers lasted just three seasons before failing to be re-elected in 1897 - despite having finished 4th the year before.

Burton Swifts carried on, though never challenged at the top of the league. In 1901 they merged with their former rivals to form Burton United after finishing bottom, but although they did manage to stave off re-election for a short while they went out of the league in 1906/7, never to return.

The current club was formed in 1950, when more than 700 people turned up at a meeting proposing setting up a new team; Burton Albion started off in the Birmingham League, transferred to the Southern League in the late 50s, and had a spell away in the Northern Premier League in the early 1980s before rejoining the Southern League. Clough the younger took over as player-manager in 1998, and guided them to runners-up spots in the Southern Premier in both 1999/2000 and 2000/1. Deciding that the Northern Premier looked a more attractive route, Burton rejoined that league for 2001/2, winning the title at their first attempt and finally gaining promotion to the Conference. Last season saw them finish 16th, although so far this season has seen an improvement to 9th - a remarkable achievement that places them as one of the best of the part-time clubs. This, combined with the cup victory over Torquay, was enough to net Clough the Conference Manager of the Month award for November.

The dreaded curse hasn't hit the Brewers yet though, with a 2-1 win at Northwich Victoria last night (Tuesday).

Burton have a reasonable record in the FA Cup, having reached the first round no less than 16 times. Usually though that's been the limit of their progress, although there have also been a couple of third round appearances. In 1955/6 (their first appearance in the competition proper) they beat Halifax in a second round replay to claim their first league scalp before losing heavily to Charlton; it was to be almost 30 years though before they got beyond the first round again. After gaining their second league scalp with a defeat of Aldershot in the second round, they drew Leicester at home and switched the game to the Baseball Ground: Leicester won comfortably, 6-1, but the game was marred by crowd trouble and the FA ordered that the match be replayed behind closed doors, Leicester this time winning just 1-0. Torquay were their third League scalp in this season's first round.

In the FA Trophy, Burton were runners-up to Kidderminster in 1986/7, and have made the semi-finals on two other occasions, most recently in 2001/2.

In terms of links between the two clubs, there aren't very many. Peter Taylor was Burton's manager before being tempted away by Brian Clough to join Pools as his assistant; former Pools player Neil Warnock was in charge of Burton at the time of their run to the FA Cup third round in 1985; and of course there's the Clough connection itself. Recent triallist Matt O'Halloran had a loan spell at Burton, but he seems to be about the only player link between the two clubs - and that's a tenuous one at best! We have never played Burton in a competitive match before.

The Brewers will fancy their chances against Pools, especially on their own turf in front of what is likely to be their biggest crowd of the season; the highest so far is the 3200 that watched them against Shrewsbury, although they normally get around the 1500 mark. The money from a potentially lucrative third round appearance would be very welcome also, as they start work shortly on the newly-named Pirelli Stadium and prepare to go full-time next season following a move from their current Eton Park home.

Burton is of course a well-known centre of British Brewing (it was some pre-war adverts for Bass Burton Ale that gave us the expression "gone for a Burton"), but if there are any Poolies hoping to see some of the breweries in action beware. To go round the Coors (formerly Bass) brewery you need to book in advance, Marston's only run tours on weekdays (again bookable in advance), while Ind Coope (owned by Carlsberg-Tetley) doesn't seem to run tours at all! Of course, there will be plenty of places serving Burton's best known exports (Bass and Marston's Pedigree) to thirsty Poolies on Sunday. Will we be toasting victory, or will our FA Cup hopes have gone for a Burton? Watch out for the full match preview later in the week.