Nigel Clough knows Burton Albion are going to have to show form like they have not managed all season if they are to avoid Championship relegation.

The Brewers have won seven of their 38 League games in 2017-18 and are currently three points adrift of safety as teams head into the final section of the campaign.

Clough and Albion are targeting four victories from their remaining eight fixtures as they look to make it three successive seasons in the second tier of English football.

But having managed back-to-back wins only once so far - at Bolton Wanderers and Reading before Christmas – that will take an upturn in results for the Brewers, something Clough knows they cannot afford to miss out on at this stage.

Burton Albion celebrate Tom Flanagan's opener in the win at Reading

"We're thinking we'll have to win half of them and get a draw, something like that," said the Burton boss.

"That gets us to 42, 43 points, and it might be enough.

"That will depend on Birmingham City and Barnsley."

Reaching that target, of course, would require the Brewers to claim more than half of the number of victories they have recorded over the last eight months in the space of six weeks.

"Correct, that's what we're going to have to pull out of the bag," he added.

"We know that. Sometimes that makes it a little bit easier, that you know exactly what you've got to do now with eight games to go.

"We have to start winning matches."

A three-point gap is by no means a mountainous one for Albion to overhaul, and there are precedents for impressive runs of form late in the campaign.

Clough highlights the work of Neil Warnock - whose Cardiff City side host the Brewers on Friday - when in charge of Rotherham United at the end of the 2015-16 season.

The Millers were six points adrift of safety at an albeit earlier stage after 33 games, before going on an 11-game unbeaten run which included six victories, securing Championship safety with two matches to spare.

Neil Warnock oversaw a remarkable late-season surge by Rotherham United in 2015-16
Neil Warnock oversaw a remarkable late-season surge by Rotherham United in 2015-16

And the Brewers boss believes his side need to first give themselves a platform on which to build if they are to recreate such a stirring burst.

"It defies logic sometimes," he said.

"Neil Warnock did it with Rotherham a few years ago, there are plenty of examples.

"It's about getting that first result.

"We got a result at Barnsley and we were so close to following it up four days later with the performance here against Millwall, where we lost 1-0 and didn't deserve to.

"So we should've got back-to-back wins then.

"We're going to have to get back-to-back wins somewhere, so it's a good place to start at Cardiff.

"When you are playing the teams, Cardiff are second in the league playing second from bottom, it looks a home banker on paper.

"Then you've got Middlesbrough, who are in great form, coming on Monday.

"But we need to get something out of the games if we can."