THE CITY v THE BREWERS 1-60 ODDS

The Brewers, Burton Albion, meet The Citizens, Man City, tonight in the Carabao Cup Semi-final and by form should be on to a bit of a hiding. But there is the Clough factor which might just stand for something. The club has made rapid progress through the pyramid having been Champions in the Northern Premier League (Level 6) in 2001-2, Champions in the Blue Square Conference (Level 5) 2008-9 and then winners into the Football League Division 2 in 2014-5 and Runners Up in FL Division 1 (Level 3) in 2015-16. They are presently in League 1 having been relegated last season.

Nigel Clough led the famous "charge" from 1998 and of course due to his success he was recruited by Derby (Clough history!) in January 2009 when the Brewers club was 13 points clear in the Conference. At this stage in the season, with Roy McFarland as manager, Blue Square paid out all bets assuming Burton would be promoted as Champions and then the players took their feet off the gas and eventually won the Championship on the last day of the season with a little help from their competitors!

City are 51 league places higher than Burton. Nigel Clough, who was recalled to the club in December 2015, is hoping to get to another final after he experienced wins with Nottingham Forest in his playing days. He scored twice in the 1989 defeat of Luton 3-1 and won a second medal in 1990 beating Oldham 1-0.
His father, Brian, won two consecutive finals in 1978 (replaying and winning over Liverpool 1-0 with Kenny Burns) and in 1979 when Gary Birtles two goals sunk Southampton 3-2. Before the Liverpool final, Nigel tossed the coin to decide which finalist would wear red and he won. Liverpool played in the yellow in the drawn first final.

Tonight Liam Boyce in the Burton squad is an international with 17 caps with Northern Ireland. Stephen Quinn has 18 caps with the Republic of Ireland, but is unfit. Marvin Sordell played for Great Britain in the 2012 Olympic team and Dimitar Evtimor was on Bulgaria's bench in the UEFA nations' league, but isn't picked. City have 979 caps! Albion are worth £6 mill and City £1 billion.

Burton, founded in 1950, have beaten Shrewsbury, Burnley, Villa, Middlesbrough and Forest on the way through this campaign. City Leicester, Fulham and Oxford Utd.

A defunct club, Burton Wanderers, have played Manchester City around 1894-7, winning a Boxing Day match 8-0! Albion have not had the privilege.

Founded in 1871 the club played in the Midlands League and joined the Football League 2nd Division, for three seasons in the 1894-5. In 1897-8 Burton Wanderers and Burton Swifts finished 14th and 15th out of 16 in the bottom of the Second Division. Swifts founded in 1871, survived until 1901.

In 1901, Wanderers merged with Burton Swifts to form Burton United, who once beat Newcastle United 9-0 in a League game, the worst the Toon have experienced. United fell out of the league in 1907.