Danny Davidson is desperate to prove a point to the man who threw him on the soccer scrapheap.

The Crawley striker is determined to continue his goalscoring form against Nigel Clough's Burton Albion at the Broadfield Stadium tomorrow.

Davidson, 25, spent three years at Burton after being released as a trainee by Derby County as a 17-year-old.

He progressed through the youth ranks under manager John Barton and scored on his second first team appearance early in the 1998-99 season.

But Barton was sacked just two weeks later and replaced by Clough and that signalled the beginning of the end for Davidson.

He was an unused substitute for the first four matches after Clough took charge but soon found himself out of favour and was released.

Davidson dropped into the Midland Alliance League, the equivalent of the Sussex County League, where he played for Boldmere St Michaels, before moving on to Leek, Hereford and Stafford Rangers.

He scored 38 goals in two seasons for Rangers and that convinced Reds manager Francis Vines to sign the 6ft 4in striker in the summer.

He has gone on to score three times this season, including two in his last two starts.

Davidson said: "Under Clough I became only a bit-part player and was on the fringes so I moved on.

"It will be nice to have a chance to show what I can do now. I have started to score a few lately so hopefully I will get another against them."

Davidson believes Crawley have the perfect chance to return to winning ways against relegation-threatened Burton.

Reds lost their unbeaten home record with Tuesday night's 3-1 defeat against leaders Barnet and slipped two places in the table to ninth.

Davidson said: "It is good we have a home game straight away because it means we can put the defeat behind us quickly.

"It would have been really tough to bounce back from that defeat if we had an away game."

Burton have won just once in their last eight league games and just five times this season, including a 1-0 victory over Crawley in September.

Captain Ian Simpemba believes Burton will try to stop Reds from playing.

He said: "It is very important we get our home form back. That puts a bit of pressure on us to win and Burton will be out to make it difficult for us. When we played them earlier this season, they looked a very average side but they worked hard.

"They will be big and strong and make it hard for us to break them down, so there is no way we can go into the game expecting to win."

Simpemba is relishing the chance of going head-to-head with Burton striker Mark Robins. The 35-year-old is famous for scoring the goal which saved Alex Ferguson's job at Manchester United and also had spells at Norwich, Leicester and Walsall.

He joined Burton in the summer but has only recently featured after a serious knee injury during pre-season.

Simpemba said: "Coming up against strikers like that is what playing in the Conference is all about. He has so much experience after playing in the Premiership and Europe, so he will be a tough customer."

Simpemba and Davidson are one booking away from a one-match suspension, which would rule them out for next week's trip to York City.