Burton have sorry record in Trophy

BURTON Albion’s sorry record in the Football League Trophy began in their first season in League Two, 2009-10 with a humbling 5-1 defeat at home to Chesterfield.

Thankfully, the competition was a straight knockout back then, with no group stage to get through.

They were beaten at home again, 2-1 by Rotherham United, in what was then the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, the following season, then by the same score by Sheffield United.

In 2012-13, the Coventry Telegraph’s Andy Turner noted that it was like watching Johnstone’s Paint dry as the Sky Blues and the Brewers played out a goalless draw and went to penalties.

The two sides scored their first nine spot-kicks each, then both missed one. It came down to a battle of the goalkeepers and Dean Lyness missed for Burton, Joe Murphy did not and Coventry won 10-9.

After that, back to normal. Notts County won 1-0 at Meadow Lane in 2013-14, followed by Doncaster Rovers winning 3-0 at the Pirelli Stadium, then beating the Brewers on penalties after a goalless draw the following season.

There was a respite from the competition for Albion’s two Championship seasons but when they returned to League One, the group stage format had been introduced and they lost 2-1 at home to Walsall and 1-0 away to Port Vale, setting up the first of the dead rubbers, a 1-0 defeat at home to Middlesbrough Under-21s with an attendance of 202.

Blow the trumpets. The 2019-20 season saw Burton’s first win in the competition, 3-1 away to Crewe Alexandra, but a 2-0 home defeat to Everton’s Under-21s and a 2-1 home defeat to Mansfield Town still meant an early exit.

Last season, an entertaining 3-3 draw away to Peterborough United was “lost” on penalties, now taken merely for an extra point in the group stage in the event of a draw.

Cambridge United’s win at the Pirelli completed an unwanted hattrick of successive 4-2 defeats for Jake Buxton’s beleaguered side and they were out again, the 1-1 draw against Fulham Under-21s again a dead rubber.

After Tuesday’s 4-2 defeat to Aston Villa Under-21s and the earlier 2-1 loss to MK Dons, there will now be another, even deader, rubber, a trek to play Wycombe Wanderers, who are also already out, on Tuesday November 9.