Burton Albion
Also written as Burton.
The club
Burton Albion were founded on 6 July 1950 and play at the Pirelli Stadium in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, their home since 2005. Capacity is 6,912, among the smallest in the Football League. The club are the Brewers, a reference to the town's industry, and play in yellow and black.
Recent seasons
Burton have been a League One club for nine consecutive seasons and have spent most of that run in the lower half. They were 12th with 48 points in 2019/20, a season decided on points per game after the pandemic curtailed it, 16th with 57 points in 2020/21, 16th again with 53 in 2021/22 and 15th with 56 in 2022/23. Two 20th-place finishes followed, 46 points in 2023/24 and 47 in 2024/25, both close to the relegation places.
In 2025/26 they were 17th with 54 points from 46 games, 13 wins, 15 draws and 18 defeats. The draw total is the striking figure: almost a third of the season ended level. Jake Beesley top-scored in the league with 13 goals and Tyrese Shade led all competitions with 14. The best result was a 6-0 home win over St Albans City in the FA Cup on 1 November 2025, and Burton went on to the fourth round before losing to West Ham United. They went out of the League Cup in the second round to Lincoln City and did not clear the EFL Trophy group stage. The two worst days were identical: 0-4 at home to both Plymouth Argyle and Leyton Orient. Average home league attendance was 3,995.
Honours and landmarks
Burton's honours are all from the club's climb rather than its top-flight history, of which there is none. They won the Northern Premier League in 2001/02, the Conference in 2008/09 to reach the Football League for the first time, and League Two in 2014/15. They were League One runners-up in 2015/16, which took them into the Championship, where they spent two seasons, and they were FA Trophy runners-up in 1986/87. Record home attendance is 6,746 for a Championship match against Derby County on 26 August 2016. Darren Stride made 646 appearances, the club record, and Richie Barker is the leading scorer with 159 goals. The record fee received is £2m for Jackson Irvine; the record paid is £500,000 for Liam Boyce.
Notable scorelines
Record win: 12-1 against Coalville Town in the Birmingham Senior Cup on 6 September 1954. Record defeat: 0-10 against Barnet in the Southern League Premier Division on 7 February 1970. The most recent match of real note is the 6-0 FA Cup win over St Albans City on 1 November 2025.
Head-to-head notes
All-time head-to-head records against 2026/27 opponents could not be established; 11v11, which publishes them, refused automated access, and the club's own site does not carry them in a fetchable form. Recent meetings are better documented, because Burton have been in the same division as most of this season's opponents. From 2025/26 at the Pirelli Stadium: beat Mansfield Town 2-1 on 2 August 2025, lost 3-0 to Luton Town on 30 August, lost 4-0 to Plymouth Argyle on 27 September, lost 1-0 to Peterborough United on 18 October, beat Blackpool 1-0 on 15 November, lost 4-0 to Leyton Orient on 29 November, drew 0-0 with Wycombe Wanderers on 13 December and lost 2-0 to Wigan Athletic on 29 December. Away from home they drew 0-0 at Huddersfield Town on 20 September, drew 1-1 at Doncaster Rovers on 4 October, lost 1-0 at AFC Wimbledon on 25 October and drew 2-2 at Stevenage on 20 December, that last one against the club they open against. Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday, relegated into League One, and Bromley, Cambridge United, Milton Keynes Dons and Notts County, promoted into it, were not played in 2025/26 and no record against them is given here.
Right now (2026/27)
Gary Bowyer is head coach, appointed on 17 December 2024, so this is his first full season having taken over mid-way through 2024/25 and steered the club up to 17th last year.
The summer has thinned the squad more than it has strengthened it. Out went Jake Beesley, last season's top league scorer, to Bradford City on 15 June 2026 for an undisclosed fee, Udoka Godwin-Malife to Reading on 30 June, Julian Larsson to Helsingborg on 7 July, Jack Cooper-Love to FC Emmen on a free on 13 July, Dylan Williams to Motherwell on 20 July for an undisclosed fee and Terence Vancooten to Stevenage on 25 July. The replacements are centre-back Curtis Tilt from Bradford City on 29 June for an undisclosed fee, forward Matthew Dennis from Notts County on 4 July, forward Gbemi Arubi from Dundalk on 18 July, and goalkeeper Corey Addai on loan from Stockport County on 15 July.
Pre-season produced no wins and one goal: 0-0 at Alfreton Town on 11 July, 0-3 at home to Leicester City on 18 July, 0-1 at home to Birmingham City on 22 July and 1-1 at Solihull Moors on 28 July. The EFL Cup first round brings Blackburn Rovers to the Pirelli Stadium on 8 August 2026 at 15:00. League One opens at home to Stevenage on 15 August 2026, then Leicester City away on 22 August and Notts County away on 29 August.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burton_Albion_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Burton_Albion_F.C._seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Burton_Albion_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Burton_Albion_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_EFL_League_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_EFL_Cup https://www.burtonalbionfc.co.uk/news/2024/december/17/gary-bowyer-named-new-burton-albion-head-coach/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.