"We'll take a point today...!" Oh look, we got three. Again.

A FRIEND of mine has a Scouse mate, a Liverpool supporter, who decided to hook up with us for the trip to Fleetwood Town a couple of weeks ago.

This chap is old enough to have caught some of Liverpool’s proper glory days but has got used to plenty of (relative) disappointment in recent years as well. Of more interest is that, through his friendship with my Burton-supporting mate, he takes a passing interest in the Brewers and knows how they are doing and the way the club is set up.

He was genuinely surprised, however, to listen to Burton supporters talking before the game, saying things like “we’ll take a point today.”

After he watched the Brewers take Fleetwood apart and we met up afterwards he said: “I’m amazed that you didn’t go into the game thinking your team could do that. You’re where you are in the league, you’re flying. Why shouldn’t you believe you’re going to beat them?”

It’s a good point but it’s a little reminder, I think, of who we are and where we’ve come from. There was plenty of similar talk ahead of the Rotherham game and the Exeter game; a lot of us came up with reasons (the injury list in one case, Exeter’s away form in the other) why a point would be a good result.

Even on Tuesday night, I wasn’t the only one thinking the Morecambe game might just be a step too far, that all good runs come to an end and a slightly less pressured game might just be the one in which it happened. I didn’t think that after five minutes, mind you, because it was obvious in that time that the players were as up for it as in any other of the recent contests. Morecambe had plenty of the ball but only one team looked like scoring; well, for 80 minutes anyway.

So, as I was saying, it’s about who we are and where we’ve so recently come from. Even in the fourth year in the Football League, a lot of us can’t quite believe this is happening.

If you’re an older supporter, you’re equating this to grim nights at Northern Premier League games. If you’re younger and you don’t have those memories, perhaps you can’t quite believe that Gary Rowett was going to do such a good job; something you share with a lot of the older supporters.

I can claim that I did believe he would do the job this well but that, admittedly, is from the privileged position of getting to talk to the man every week as part of my job. It wasn’t difficult to see Gary’s focus, common sense and determination, nor how most of the players were reacting to him.

The addition of Kevin Summerfield is proving a master-stroke too. Gary stated when he asked Kevin to join that, though they shared a philosophy, he wanted someone else on board who would see things differently, who would fill in the skills and experience gaps he recognised in himself. How many managers have you heard say anything like that?

Kevin occasionally does the after-match interviews and would probably be the first to admit that he’s not such a natural at them as Gary.

The manager will come out smiling with a quip or two before we start. His assistant tends to gaze around the assembled media with the air of wondering how long this might take. But he often cuts straight to the chase. The management “weren’t happy” at 3-0 up at half-time against Exeter because, goals apart, the team hadn’t been playing as they can.

That tells you all you need to know about how they work.

It’s not a bad week to be reflecting on how they work, with Bristol Rovers away on Saturday… the fixture that was the low point, statistically at least, of Gary’s time as caretaker manager, when everything Rovers hit went in, or was deflected in, mostly, and it ended 7-1.

Gary was calm after that, though, reasoning that it was beneficial, in that it had told him a lot about the character of some of the players in his squad and focused him on what needed to be done in the summer.

Draw your own conclusions, then, from the statistic that only four of the players in the 16-man match day squad for the game at Bristol Rovers last season were in the 18-man squad for the Morecambe game on Tuesday.

Yes, injuries have a small part to play in that. Aaron Webster was in neither squad but is still at the club, for example. But, basically, Gary has effected the transformation he knew was necessary.

The four in both squads? Jacques Maghoma, Andy Corbett, Jimmy Phillips and Calvin Zola.

• Most of you correctly identified Billy Kee as the schoolboy player in the picture quiz in my last blog. He was playing for Allexton & New Parks Under-11s in Leicester in 2001 in the picture. Paul Parker was the first to come up with the answer. Paul, I will get in touch to sot out the prize - a pint - soon!