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One of the worst kept secrets in local football
was finally revealed when Mark Robins signed for the Brewers in the
summer of 2004. There had been speculation for several months that
the veteran striker would join the club as he was currently living
in the town whilst playing for Sheffield Wednesday. When his
professional career was halted through injury, it was only a matter
of time before he arrived at Eton Park.
Robins arrived with a glittering career behind
him, having played at the highest level for Manchester United,
Norwich and Leicester City. He was often referred to as the player
that saved Alex Ferguson's job at Old Trafford, scoring a goal in a
vital FA Cup game that revitalised the club and opened the gates to
the phenomenal success that the club has enjoyed ever since. It was
at Norwich City though where Robins was at his most successful, and
it prompted Leicester City to splash out £1 million to sign him.
He never really managed to live up to his big
money tag and he drifted out of the English game with spells in
Spanish and Greek football, before returning home to join Manchester
City and then Walsall. He left the Saddlers after the club was
relegated to Division 2 and joined Rotherham, with whom he
rediscovered his scoring touch (49 goals in 117 appearances). He
spent time on loan at Bristol City, before finishing his career at
Sheffield.
So it looked as though Nigel Clough had pulled
off quite a coup to sign a player, still only 34 years old. The
manager was quoted in the local press "primarily we're signing
him to score goals for us because last season we made plenty of
chances but didn't always get the results. Hopefully, having Mark in
our side will turn the 1-0 defeats into draws and the 0-0 draws into
1-0 wins."
It looked as though the manager's predictions
were about to come true when Robins scored within 3 minutes of
pulling on an Albion shirt in a pre-season friendly against
Stapenhill. He netted a second goal and could have grabbed a
hat-trick in the game, causing the expectation levels to rise
amongst the Albion supporters. However before the new season
started, he suffered a reoccurrence of the injury that had seen him
quit the professional game, and he wasn't seen in competitive action
again until November.
Unfortunately, Robins didn't live up to the hype
that had been generated by Clough as the fans waited for the striker
to return to fitness. It was promised that chances that were not
being taken by the team were the type of chances that a player of
Robins' stature would stick away when he was in the team. However,
the reality was that he never really got many chances and those that
he did get were not taken. He scored his only goal in a 2-2 draw at
Canvey Island, however his contributions in his partnership with Jon
Shaw cannot be discounted. His experience no doubt helped his strike
partners to find the space to score themselves, but the truth is
that supporters expect strikers to score, and Robins didn't.
In February 2005, he returned to former club
Rotherham United as assistant manager.
Nigel Clough had no regrets over Robins' time
with Burton, saying "It's unfortunate that Mark got the injury
when he did because we created a lot of chances that he would have
been on the end of in the early part of the season." But he did
and he didn't respectively, and he will go down in most supporters
minds as another big name signing that failed to live up to the hype
or the wage packet. |
MARK
ROBINS