Burton Albion's agreement with St George's Park for the use of the National Football Centre's facilities has helped the academy recruit better players.

That's the view of Brewers academy manager Danny Robinson, who credits the home of every England football team for helping the club to integrate themselves into the centre, near Burton in Tatenhill.

With Albion having no training ground as such and with an academy a little under a decade old, the infrastructure isn't there for the Brewers to compete with the clubs they were beating on the pitch last season in terms of facilities.

Step forward St George's Park, the £105m complex opened in 2012. The home of Burton's first-team had been expanded this season to include all academy age groups.

England preparing for the World Cup at St George's Park
England preparing for the World Cup at St George's Park

Now, every Albion side gets to train there, creating a close-knit feel. With Joe Sbarra, Ben Fox, Matty Palmer, Reece Hutchinson all coming through the academy to feature in the first-team, the thought of the production line being aided by the facilities at St George's Park can only be a good feeling

"It's a three-year agreement," Robinson said of the current deal with the academy teams training there.

"They've been brilliant up at St George's.

"The relationship there with the club and the first team has been in place for years.

St George's Park

"When I was leaving the club as a player, in the mid-2000s, we were just starting to train there when there was nothing - no buildings, just pitches.

"That's just grown, I think.

"What I personally tried to do and see when I came in, was there something that we could take advantage of?

"To align things better (across all age groups), but also give the boys the best possible chance when it comes to facilities.

Young players from the Brewers academy await kick off ahead the Sky Bet Championship match between Burton Albion and Reading at the Pirelli Stadium on Sunday 7th May 2017.
Young players from the Brewers academy await kick off ahead the Sky Bet Championship match between Burton Albion and Reading at the Pirelli Stadium on Sunday 7th May 2017.

"And of course sitting down with them and going through it, working it all out and getting to a place where it works for both of us.

"We've just confirmed out schedule for next year for the Under-9s, 16s and 18s as far as when they're going to train.

"And once again they've bent over backwards to help us out.

"I couldn't speak highly enough of the team up there."

Because of the nature of where the Brewers are located, clubs such as Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Birmingham City, Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City all have the run on them when it comes to signing up youngsters to their academy.

But what the Brewers do have to their advantage is a top class facility, something which doesn't go unnoticed by parents and players.

The Brewers managed to bring Joe Sbarra in when he was released by West Brom, and now he's a regular staple of the first-team.

Robinson and co will be hoping they can continue harnessing the access they have to St George's Park to their advantage.

Burton Albion academy manager Dan Robinson

"You can imagine what it does for recruitment," Robinson added.

"We're bringing in kids from Derby, Stoke, Birmingham - we're surrounded by some big sharks.

"They release a player and they've got numerous other big fish to go to - we bring them in on trial and they come and see the indoor 3G, the grass, or on the outdoor 3G.

"And as a parent you could be sitting there going 'wow, this is better than the Category One facility we've been at.'

St George's Park
St George's Park

"It's a massive draw card on that front, and when it comes to recruiting staff to a place where they want to come and work every day. It's brilliant, and it's on our doorstep - why wouldn't they?

"We've got a really good support from them and we also play our games down at Welbeck (college in Loughborough) still - another fantastic facility.

"Every team that comes there they think wow, the pitches are always good there and the people look after us.

"So yeah, we've worked hard from our last conversation to keep these relationships and build on them to go 'right, what else can we get from you?'.

"We ran little tournaments, things like that. You talk to clubs and say you're running a tournament up at St George's Park and they want to be there."