Gary Rowett says Derby County would be open to loaning players to Burton Albion in January

Gary Rowett said he is open to helping Burton Albion out by loaning players from Derby County to the Brewers in January after watching his Rams side beat his old team 1-0 at Pride Park.

Albion slumped to defeat despite a spirited showing against a promotion-chasing Derby side , with Johnny Russell pouncing on Matt Palmer's touch to hammer home in the 81st minute.

That was all that could separate the two sides, with the Brewers showing signs of what has made them so hard to beat on the road this term.

And Rowett, who began his managerial career with the Brewers as an understudy to Paul Peschisolido, acknowledged that the stark contrast in resources played its part as the Rams called upon millions of pounds worth of talent from the bench.

And despite re-iterating that the contest held no romance for him given his connections to both sides, he did say that he would help the Brewers out if he could - in the form of loanees in January.

"If I look at it, we've probably got three players on more than the whole of Burton's squad.

"We have to look at that and you have to look at their crowd - 4000 at games.

"I think Burton's success has been amazing, but now that's a difficult scenario because you're in the Championship.

"I spoke to Ben and Nigel, and the first season is always that you've got something to prove against the whole world.

"It's always going to be more difficult, but what see out there is that is a team of underdogs and they're fighting for their lives.

"I thought they played with good quality at times today, the put us under pressure and they've got good players like Lucas Akins and Marvin Sordell was a handful when they got the ball into him.

"And I genuinely think Burton will have a very good chance of staying up this year but they know it's going to be hard.

"We spoke a little bit about rivalry, but what I would say is that when we're away from home I hope plenty of our fans go and support them, because it's not a rivalry in its truest form, it's almost a 'you hope that they do well' because they've got so many good people there.

"I watch their result come in every week, and once again if we can help them in any way in the January window to let them have a player or two, if it would make a difference for them we'll always try and do that."