Nottingham Forest vs Burton Albion Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

This is one of the most significant days in the history of Burton Albion. Having spent most of their 66 years in the non-league, they could scarcely have thought they’d ever face East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest in a league match but here they are ready to take on the challenge of Championship football for the first time. Nigel Clough has returned to continue the good work done by Gary Rowett and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink before him. We saw enough from them as they finished 2nd in League One last term to suggest they can at least be competitive in the higher league. They’ve played 10 pre-season friendlies so fitness shouldn’t be an issue here and that includes a 3-0 win over Stoke and draw with QPR.

Nottingham Forest are under new management, with former Real Sociadad and Rennes boss Philippe Montanier at the helm, and he takes over a side that finished in a disappointing 16th last term. This is a real banana skin opening game for him to have and although they’ve done okay in pre-season there are still a lot of new faces.  He may struggle to quickly mould them into a team playing the way he wants. A lot of the signings are relatively unknown players from abroad . These players have come in either on loan or on a free and they may not be quite ready for the test of playing a pumped up Burton side that is much more settled.

Newly promoted sides do have a knack of getting good results on the opening day. This is when the confidence of their previous promotion winning campaign is still in tact and the buzz of playing in a new league is fresh. MK Dons, who ended up having a very poor season, winning 4-1 away on the opening day last year, is a good example and Burton could just cause an upset here.

Backing Burton to Win 2-1 at 12/1 certainly looks to offer value in the correct score market.