League One boss makes clear ‘two best teams in division’ call ahead of Sheffield Wednesday clash as Ipswich Town, Plymouth Argyle and Barnsley watch on

The manager of Sheffield Wednesday’s next opponents has made a bold call over who he believes are the two best teams in League One - and has backed his side to ‘relish’ the chance to take points off the Owls this afternoon.
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Burton Albion’s rearguard action against fourth-placed Barnsley on Good Friday saw them grab only 39% of possession and register two shots on target - and they won the clash 2-1.

A similar set-up is expected at the Pirelli Stadium this afternoon when Wednesday come to town hoping to build on their 3-0 win over Accrington Stanley on Monday and steer further away from the run of six matches without a win that fell before.

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Burton boss Dino Maamria has done some steering of his own in recent weeks with his side having peeled away from the relegation zone.

And speaking ahead of this afternoon’s battle, he made clear who he believes are the strongest two teams in a bitterly-contested race to finish in the top two.

“For me, Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday are the best two teams in the division,” said Maamria. “I haven’t seen as much of (second-placed) Plymouth Argyle of late but they have done brilliantly under Steve Schumacher.

“It’s interesting, though, that if you look at the results on Monday, the teams at the bottom were picking up points against the teams at the top.

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“In my experience of football, when it gets to the end of the season, it’s very tight. No results are going to be nailed on and there are a lot of surprises. There will be bottom teams beating top teams, there will be points dropped everywhere.

“Wednesday are a good team, a big team, with an experienced manager and with Championship quality players. We know what they’re capable of. We’ve managed to beat them once, in a (Papa John’s) cup game away but we’ve lost against them as well.”

Both Maamria and Burton chairman Ben Robinson have made a public push to sell out the near 7,000-seater Pirelli Stadium and Wednesday are to expect a home crowd well up for the battle.

“We’ll relish it,” Maamria said. “The league leaders are coming to the Pirelli Stadium and there is no better game than that,” he said.

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“I prefer to play those games than against teams at the bottom, if I’m honest, because I know our fans will be up for it, it’ll be packed out and our players will know they have to be up for it and at it. It makes my job kind of easier, to prepare them mentally, because the game speaks for itself.”

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