Meanwhile, a defeat in Papa John’s Trophy
WHILE the drama of the transfer deadline played out at the Pirelli Stadium, ultimately leading to four signings for Burton Albion, the small matter of a Papa John’s Trophy group stage match was going on on the pitch.
With the paperwork being done in the background, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was full engaged with the game as a much-changed Brewers team went down 2-1 to what was also largely a shadow MK Dons side.
The EFL Trophy struggles, still, to engage football supporters until the teams who get to the group stages come within sniffing distance of a day out at Wembley for the final and 690 supporters turned up at the Pirelli Stadium, occupying only the main stand.
The game offered the chance to impress the manager for goalkeeper Ellery Balcombe, left-back Frazer Blake-tracy, winger Danny Rowe and midfielder Bryn Morris, while there was a run-out for academy striker Charlie Williams.
What a baptism it was for him. He has been training with the first team squad, so he should know what to expect, but here he had Hasselbaink on his case for much of his 64 minutes on the pitch. “Come on Charlie, get back Charlie, keep going Charlie...”
It was useful, too, for young midfielder
Ciaran Gilligan, coming back from a thigh injury, to get the last 15 minutes on the pitch.
On balance, the Brewers probably did not deserve to lose the game but neither di they have a cutting edge.
It was Blake-tracy who shanked their best first-half chance wide after Conor Shaughnessy flicked on a Tom Hamer long throw and the Brewers almost took a bizarre lead when Hiram Boateng sent a back pass towards his own goal and had his blushes spared by defender Harry Darling on the line.
The Dons took the lead after an hour when Josh Martin’s weak shot deflected into the path of Jay Bird, who tucked away a 12-yard shot.
Soon after, Charlie Brown had a shot parried by Balcombe and Darling banged in the rebound.
Albion sent on Joe Powell and Terry Taylor – who made one superb tackle to halt an attack – and had one back when Powell’s free kick from the right glanced off Matt O’riley’s head into the corner of the net for an own goal.
Aaron Amadi-holloway had a late chance to equalise but shot straight at keeper Laurie Walker.
It was not a game in which any of those not starting regularly enhanced their claims to do so.