Will Swan – set to start at Burton tomorrow night.Picture credit – Chris & Jeanette Holloway / The Bigger Picture.media
A win for either side, either in 90 minutes or on penalties, would carry them out of the group and Clough intends to play a stronger side than he would have used had they already qualified.
“We have been working on our line-up over the weekend, trying to get the right amount of minutes for the right players,” he said.
“Certainly all of Saturday’s subs will start. Stephen Quinn is going to start the game as are Lucas Akins, Will Swan, James Gale, George Williams, Hiram Boateng and Calum Macdonald.
“A couple of first teamers will start and others will be on the bench and do 45 minutes each. George Maris and Aaron Lewis can do 45 minutes each just to share the load.
“We must make sure those who need 90 minutes get it and those who need 45 towards Saturday get that time as well.”
He continued: “We want to win and get through to the next round.
“When you come to the last game of a qualifying stage and you need to win to go through, that’s what we want to do. That’s why we will put a few first teamers out there.
“In an ideal world we wanted to beat Everton U21s, which we tried, and we might have been through and this game a dead rubber. Then we could have maybe played a few of the U19s. But we’d like to get through if we can.”
Clough enjoyed huge glory in two spells at Burton and said: “I think this is my first time back there in a competitive game though I have been back for pre-season friendlies with Derby.
“There were many highlights there over my 14-15 years. I think we improved our league position every year bar one. So we were always making progress.
“Promotion from the Unibond was incredibly special to get us into the Conference. That was the aim at the time – becoming a solid Conference side.
“Then we had a new stadium and the Manchester United game and replay which headed off the debut on the stadium, and gave us a platform moving forward.
“I think they were 13-14 points clear at the top of the Conference when we left them, and they got over the line to get into the Football League.
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“Then we went back and it had gone on to a different level. We managed to get them into the Championship – and staying in the Championship was certainly a highlight of the 14-15 years as no one gave us a cat in hell’s chance of staying in there – and rightly so.
“We were playing Villa, Newcastle, Wolves, Forest and the like in league games. And we had not long come from the Unibond and the Dr Martens.
“It was surreal, but we made it with a game to spare and were so close to doing it the season after as well.”
