ADAM Reed is not expecting a Burton Albion recall when his old team visit the Pirelli Stadium tomorrow.

The 22-year-old midfielder played a key role in preserving York City’s Football League status when he scored two important goals during the final six games of last season following his loan move from Sunderland.

Following his release at the Stadium of Light, though, Reed decided to sign for Gary Rowett’s Burton over the summer despite a contract offer from the Minstermen.

He went on to make a promising start to his Brewers career, scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory at Accrington in August.

But, having been dropped from the team three months ago, he has found himself fifth in the pecking order for a central-midfield berth behind fellow ex-Minsterman Robbie Weir, Lee Bell, Matty Palmer and Jack Dyer and has been unable to add to his six outings for the Staffordshire club.

Reed’s last appearance came during a 2-0 home defeat against Oxford back on September 7 and he has not even made the bench for a dozen matches.

For the last fortnight, the Hartlepool-born midfielder has been unavailable anyway due to a hamstring problem but he played a full game during Burton reserves’ 3-1 win against Burnley this week.

Despite being fit, however, he will be surprised if he makes tomorrow’s squad.

“It’s been a bit frustrating for me,” Reed admitted. “We have a big squad of 20 players and everybody has been doing well.

“I missed pre-season with a knee injury but I got in the team and scored. Then, the manager changed the team again and it has been really hard not being involved at all.

“He hasn’t said too much about why I’m not playing but there are still quite a few players that he had at the club last season and he is picking the ones he feels will win games so I just have to get behind the players and the team.

“The manager has so many quality players that, if you don’t have a good game, you won’t be playing in the next match and it can be hard to get back in because, if the team keep winning, the manager isn’t going to change anything.

“I had a great time at York last season so I really wanted to play in this game and I was looking forward to it but I will just have to see what the gaffer is going to do.”

Reed added that opting against a permanent move to Bootham Crescent for 2013/14 was not an easy choice but cited football reasons as the main factor.

While City were staving off the threat of relegation on the final day of last term, Burton were only denied automatic promotion by goal difference and Reed said: “It was a really tough decision, especially considering Nigel Worthington is such a great manager.

“He is a person I look up to and I have a lot of respect for him but, in the back of my mind, I wanted to move my career on. I had a lot of options in the summer but Burton performed well last season and I liked what the manager said he wanted to do here.”

Burton currently lie sixth in the League Two standings, just a point behind top team Oxford, but Reed reckons last season’s play-off semi-finalists are yet to hit top form.

“We know we can do better and we want to put a run together now,” he added. “We are looking for automatic promotion, not the play-offs.

“Two or three wins on the bounce can shoot you up six places in this division and it’s consistency that gets you promoted.”

Reed also feels leading marksman Adam McGurk can be the key man for the Brewers both tomorrow and for the rest of the campaign.

On McGurk’s significance to the side, he said: “His goals have been important. When we haven’t been playing as well as we can, he has scored in 1-0 and 2-0 wins and he will always put the ball in the net if you give him a chance.”

Despite their lofty position in League Two, Burton have lost more home games – four – than any other side except for Portsmouth.

Only two teams – Devon pair Plymouth and Torquay – have managed fewer home goals, meanwhile, than the ten scored by Rowett’s men.

But results have picked up at the Pirelli in recent times with four wins out of the last five in front of their own fans and only one goal conceded in that time.

Reed puts that improvement down to a greater ability to contend with negative tactics from visiting teams, explaining: “We got frustrated at times earlier in the season when teams would come here and sit back but we have learned now to be disciplined and let our quality shine through by being patient against teams who play five people across the middle of the park. We are coping with that better now and it’s not a problem.”

The former Minsterman is expecting a tough examination, however, against his old team even if only David McGurk, Lanre Oyebanjo and Ashley Chambers are expected to feature among the players he lined up alongside last term.

“Nigel Worthington has changed the team quite a bit and, when he talked to me over the summer, he was bringing quality into the team and I knew he would attract good players to the club because he’s such an excellent manager,” Reed reasoned. “He won’t bring in anybody who won’t work hard for the team.”

 

Burton adamant to give ace every chance

BURTON Albion are hoping eight-goal top scorer Adam McGurk will be fit to face York City tomorrow.

McGurk, no relation to City namesake David, was substituted in the first half of the Brewers’ 1-1 FA Cup draw at Fleetwood last weekend due to a head injury.

He will need to undergo tests before being given the all-clear to play and the former Tranmere forward has also been nursing a heel problem in recent weeks.

Should he be unavailable, then Billy Kee is likely to partner City’s summer target Rene Howe in attack.

Kee scored Burton’s stoppage-time equaliser at Fleetwood and has netted in his last two outings – both from the bench.

Ex-Torquay target man Howe was recalled to the starting line-up last weekend for the first time since mid-September but has only scored once in 14 matches this term.

Home boss Gary Rowett has no other injury concerns with former Premier League long-throw specialist Rory Delap, now 37, back in contention following a hamstring injury and striker Michael Symes also available again.

Meanwhile, Dean Lyness will continue in goal, having regained his place following on-loan shot-stopper Jordan Pickford’s recall by Sunderland.

Benjamin Siegrist, recruited on loan from Aston Villa, is currently Lyness’ understudy, although 50-year-old veteran Kevin Poole has been named on the bench as well this season after he was re-registered as a player three years on from his last senior appearance.

Burton (probable): Lyness, Edwards, Cansdell-Sherriff, Sharps, McCrory, Hussey, Bell, Weir, MacDonald, McGurk, Howe.

 

Match facts

YORK City lost 3-1 last term on their first Football League trip to Burton Albion.

Paddy McLaughlin was the scorer and the line up on September 18, 2012 was: Ingham, Oyebanjo, C Smith, Carlisle (Doig), Fyfield, Parslow, J Smith (Potts), McLaughlin (Blair), Chambers, Walker, Coulson.

In their five Conference visits to the Pirelli Stadium, City have twice won matches and drawn one.

Players who have made appearences for both clubs include former Leeds manager Neil Warnock, Alan Kamara, Pat Lally, Paul Groves, Mark Greaves, Danny Blanchett and John McGrath.

It happened on December 14

1929: City won 4-1 at Southend United in the second round of the FA Cup with Charlie Davis, Bill Gardner and Tom Fenoughty (2) the scorers to reach the third round for the first time in the club’s history.

1946: Non-League Scunthorpe United won 1-0 at Bootham Crescent in the first round of the FA Cup watched by 7,849.

1974: City lost 4-0 at Aston Villa in the Second Division (Championship) in front of 15,840.

1982: Derek Hood, Brian Pollard, John Byrne and Gary Ford were on the scoresheet in a 4-0 FA Cup second round replay win over Hartlepool United watched by a Bootham Crescent crowd of 4,206.

2002: Stephen Brackstone and Lee Nogan, pictured left, were the marksmen in a 2-1 win at Kidderminster Harriers in Division Three (League Two).

Compiled by Dave Batters