Manager Paul Lambert knows the Blues have to get a result against bottom club Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday.

Town go into the match eighth in League One and two points off the play-offs, despite having won only two of their last eight and standing 16th in a form table from their last 13 matches.

The Blues lost 3-2 at home to Swindon last week, the Robins having gone into the game 23rd and moving up a place as a result of their win, adding to the pressure on the Blues boss.

A loss to the Brewers would further increase that pressure and Lambert agrees that Town can't afford to lose to the bottom two on successive Saturdays.

“No, we’ve got to get a result here, got to get a result,” he said. “Burton are a hard team, new manager, they got a good result last week.

“But you’ve got to put the hard work in. Put the hard work in and you’ll be fine.

“You’ve got to win a battle before you win the war, and that’s always the case with any game of football.”

Lambert seems likely to make a few changes from the team which he felt put in their worst 45 minutes in the first half last week with a number of senior players on the way back from injury.

Dai Cornell seems likely to continue in goal with the back four probably once again, from the right, skipper Luke Chambers, Luke Woolfenden, Mark McGuinness and Stephen Ward.

In midfield, Andre Dozzell seems set to line-up in his usual deeper role and Lambert will have to decide whether Flynn Downes is ready to start having made his return from his knee injury as a half-time sub against Swindon.

If so, then Emyr Huws seems most likely to drop out with Alan Judge continuing having been among Town’s better performers last weekend.

Lambert has said Jon Nolan is unlikely to be ready for inclusion after his calf problem, while Teddy Bishop is likely to be on the bench at best having been out since November with an ankle problem, the pair having returned to training this week.

Up front, Lambert will probably start James Norwood down the middle, the striker having scored his first league goal since February last year and made a significant impression last week after being introduced from the bench at half-time.

Gwion Edwards is back in training and could return on one flank with Freddie Sears having returned a couple of weeks prior to the Welshman perhaps in line for the other wide role.

The Brewers have signed midfielder Sean Clare on loan from Oxford United, while right-back Neal Eardley has joined Barrow on the same basis and midfielder Steven Lawless has re-signed for Scottish Premiership side Motherwell. They are reported to be close to finalising the addition of striker Josh Parker from Wycombe.

Burton reappointed Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink as their manager on New Year’s Day following the sacking of Jake Buxton and the former Dutch international will be in charge of his first home game having previously been boss at the Pirelli Stadium between November 2014 and December 2015.

The Brewers won 1-0 at Gillingham last week courtesy of a Hayden Carter goal, a result which ended a run of five successive defeats and a streak of eight matches without a win.

Overall, Burton have won only three of their 23 league games this season, two of those at home. They have lost seven of their 11 matches at the Pirelli Stadium and have drawn two.

Town and Burton have only met seven times in competitive fixtures, all in the league in recent seasons, with Town unbeaten having won six and drawn one.

The teams most recently met at Portman Road last month - only one game ago due to their four Covid postponements - when the Blues ran out 2-1 victors. Huws’s first league goal in more than three years saw Town to the win.

Keanan Bennetts gave Town the lead in only the fourth minute but Joe Powell hit back for the Brewers on 22 with Huws heading in a scruffy rebound 10 minutes from time to hand the points to the Blues, who as a result climbed to fifth.

The last game between the sides at the Pirelli Stadium was on the opening day of last season when Luke Garbutt's deflected debut goal saw the Blues to a 1-0 victory in their first third tier game for 62 years.

Loanee Garbutt found the net in the 11th minute to see the Blues to the three points against the Brewers, who were reduced to 10 men late on when Stephen Quinn was red-carded for two bookable offences.

No member of the current Town squad has played for Burton, but former Blues striker Luke Varney rejoined them in August as player/fitness coach and has so far made three sub appearances.

Varney, 38, was at Portman Road between February 2015 to January 2017, initially on loan, and made 14 starts and 32 sub appearances, scoring five goals.

During his previous spell with the Brewers Varney, known as Reg while at Town, netted an own goal in the Blues’ 2-1 Championship win at the Pirelli Stadium in April 2017. Burton midfielder Stephen Quinn is the brother of ex-Blue Alan.

Saturday’s referee is Neil Hair from Cambridgeshire, who has shown 66 yellow cards and one red in 16 games last season.

Hair’s most recent Town match was the Papa John’s Trophy tie at home to Arsenal’s U21s in September in which he booked Nolan and one of the visitors.

He was also at Portman Road in August for the pre-season friendly against West Ham with his previous Town league match the 1-0 defeat to Fleetwood at Portman Road in March last year in which he booked Blues skipper Chambers and one opposition player.

Hair was also the man in the middle for the 1-1 home draw with Sunderland in August 2019 in which he yellow-carded Kayden Jackson and one Black Cat.

Squad from: Cornell, Holy, Chambers (c), Donacien, Ward, Kenlock, McGuinness, Woolfenden, Nsiala, Dozzell, Downes, Judge, Bishop, Huws, Lankester, Dobra, Sears, Edwards, Norwood, Hawkins, Jackson, Drinan.

Photo: TWTD

BettyBlue added 21:05 - Jan 15 If he thinks its morally wrong to be playing, what's he still doing here?
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blues1 added 21:49 - Jan 15 Prebbs. You couldnt make it up. Oh!! You just have. They said nothing about signings being done early. Its simply nit that easy in the january window. Every manager in football will tell you that. Moves usually rely on the other team getting a replacement for the player you want to sign. Plus, we need to move players on in order to make space for any signings. So why dont you stop making stuff up and just comment on facts

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blues1 added 21:50 - Jan 15 Whoisjimmyjuan. What are you on about. Cornell has done nothing wrong since coming into the side. So why would he drop him. Holy got dropped bcse he had 3 or 4 poor games.
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ringwoodblue added 22:10 - Jan 15 Burton must be viewing this as a great chance to get 3 points. We have to turn up from the start so as not to repeat the humiliating defeat against Swindon. Predict 1-2 with Norwood to get both.
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billys_boots added 22:43 - Jan 15 Ipswich's season - gone for a Burton?
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WonTheCupin78 added 22:56 - Jan 15 Predict 4-1 with Norwood to get 2. Terrible result if we even draw this.
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Dockerblue added 22:59 - Jan 15 Chambers in the side means we,re a man down from the off, Jackson was sh1te also last week so shouldn't be in, Sears fit but hopefully that doesn't mean he comes in on the wing, that hasn't worked in the last 5 years! Lankester & Dobra out wide, 2 up top please PL, it,s your last chance as we won,t get FA from the 2 games after
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Theipswich added 22:59 - Jan 15 He has to play Jackson and Norwood up front as his "theory" of one up front is best has been disproved time and time again and we need the win. Tomorrow he'll play an attacking formation as it makes bleedin' sense dunnit ?
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prebbs007 added 23:12 - Jan 15 Blues1 “We are speaking to clubs about players at the moment and we are hopeful that we will be able to add one or two new faces to the squad early this month,” O'Neill told the club site. That was on 4th January so NOT made up you moron. Stuart Taylor on 8th Jan "We thought we might get something done before tomorrow's game but we will be patient" Stuart Taylor then said “Town are hopeful they will make their first signing of the January transfer window over the next few days” Again NOT made up. Are you really that stupid Blues1 ??? We play bottom of the league Burton tomorrow. They've made 3 signings in January already. It's the same every window. We wait, our direct competitors act. So if you're going to have a go at me on here get YOUR facts right first.

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RobsonWark added 23:19 - Jan 15 DROP CHAMBERS!!!!!!!!!!!
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eddiespearitt03 added 03:09 - Jan 16 Wait for it.....We might have the goal scoring machine Freddie Sears back in the team. Oh boy. Might as well stick Nsiala up front.
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BcarefulwhatUWish4 added 04:36 - Jan 16 Vital game for ITFC. Need those points on the PPG board. Anything other than a win is completely unacceptable. We have a huge squad of players (for a League 1 team) and we should be doing much better than we are. We shouldn't be losing to any team in the bottom 3 with the players we have.
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chepstowblue added 08:09 - Jan 16 I predict a shocker, and a very fortuitous 1-1 draw. A result that will see Hasselbaink resign, claiming that it's the 'lowest point in his career', and Lambert getting a two year extension!!
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TR11BLU added 08:32 - Jan 16 Funny, I'm sure a few weeks ago when quizzed he said 'I never wake up and think this is a must win game' Fraud
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blues1 added 10:09 - Jan 16 Prebvs. And if youd bother to read interviews properly youd have seen there are reasons why we didnt manage to sign Harrop before the Swindon game. 1, they wanted some1 in before agreeing to let him go. 2. There was no agreement on whatcportio of his wages they gonna be paying . And 3, as I said in my 1st post to you, we have to move players on or we will exceed the salary cap, before bringing some1 in. And I wont resort to insults. Only people like you resort to that. Yes, I agree, there have been previous windows when weve left it too late, but there are extenuating circumstances on this occasion. And comparing the fact that burton have signed 3 players to our situation is ridiculous. They havent the same issues with the salary cap that we have. In fact, I doubt theyve even met the top limit of that yet, whereas we are way above it realistically, when trying to bring players in.

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prebbs007 added 11:05 - Jan 16 Blues1 again you don't check your facts. We have 21 players of the 22 “senior” players allowed so we don't actually have to move anyone out unless we bring 2 in, we may want to but we don't have to, and who will want our rubbish (yes Plymouth bid for Donacien but obviously a pittance) Secondly Preston signed a midfielder/winger on loan from Brighton and bought Whiteman from Doncaster so have plenty of cover for Harrop. Much more likely is the crook not willing to pay the price again. Also it's great to hear that you know the financial records of Burton Albion and how close they are to any salary cap, superb knowledge that !!! The point is I would much prefer the idiots in positions of power at our club to keep quiet until a deal us done rather than spouting tosh that they can't back up. They should leave that to people like you !!!

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BettyBlue added 11:35 - Jan 16 Burton 2 ITFC 0
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Razor added 11:40 - Jan 16 If we play one up front against the bottom team it will be a disgrace----end of.
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blues1 added 12:28 - Jan 16 Prebbs. Get a grip. The number of players in our squad has nothing to do with us bringing in players. It's down to the salary cap. And our wages are actually outside that cap. Our wage bill last season was between £8-9m. The cap is £2.5m. Under the cap those players on our squad, over the age of 21 and under contract are classed as earning £113,000 per year. Any players we bring in do nit come under that band, so we can only pay so much in wages. Amd still have to come to no more than the £2.5 m. Therefore, we have to more players on. My point about burtons wages is yes, a bit of guesswork, based on the fact, the size of the club, and the likelihood their wage bill last season would have been one of the smallest in the division. If yo take peterborough for instance. One of the better teams last season, and their wage bill was £3.5m. And I know that bcse a chart of all the divisions wage Bill's was posted a few months ago.

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BeattiesBackPocket added 12:30 - Jan 16 I just hope all those who still stick up for Evans are seeing what utter contempt and arrogance he has towards you supporting him by still keeping this guy in a job and giving him a 5 year deal and by telling you and the rest of us ‘being careful what you wish for' That sums the ambition from the owner up for me. I never thought I'd lose interest in my club I love but evans has sucked the life out of it the past 3 years for me

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BlueParadigm added 13:35 - Jan 16 I know this sounds a bit left field and radical but why not move our two ageing fullbacks to the middle of defence and switch with the two younger lads who can get up and down the pitch for 90+ mins? Will this get me the job as next Town Manager or not even make the shortlist?
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