Portsmouth's League One rivals appoint new boss in bid to avoid relegation

And the former Leeds and Chelsea striker has been tasked with ensuring the Brewers avoid League One relegation this season.

Burton parted company with Jake Buxton earlier this week after their 4-3 loss to fellow strugglers Wigan.

The Pirelli Road outfit are rooted to the bottom of the table and are currently six points adrift of safety.

Hasselbaink takes the Brewers hot seat for the second time after a successful first spell.

He guided Burton to the League Two title in 2015, with current Pompey skipper Tom Naylor and forward Marcus Harness part of the Dutchman’s squad.

He left the following December to take charge of QPR when the Brewers were sat top of League One. They’d go on to seal automatic promotion under Nigel Clough.

Now he’s back at Burton and Hasselbaink knows he faces a difficult challenge to ensure his side steer clear of the drop.

Speaking to the club’s website, he said: ‘The job is totally different from the first time, but we are coming in to try as quickly as possible to get us up the league and keep ourselves in League One. That’s our aim and first and foremost that’s what we will be trying to do.

‘We know there is enough quality in the playing squad but that’s not reflected in where we are in the table so there is a lot of hard work to be done.

‘I have wonderful memories from when I was here before and it was a very important time in my life and I have always kept in touch with the club but I know it’s a different job now.

‘Hopefully, we can get us going as quickly as possible. The transfer window is opening but you have to give the players who are there a chance.

‘There are good players at Burton Albion who are underachieving and the first job is to get them back to their normal ability. We want to help the players to start performing and we need to squeeze as much out of them as we can, to get clean sheets and to win matches.’

Pompey welcome Burton to Fratton Park on Saturday, April 10.

The Blues delivered an impressive 4-2 success at the Pirelli in October, with Harness bagging a hat-trick.