Taylor is pushing harder to cement his place
COULD Terry Taylor finally be pushing his way into a regular start for Burton Albion?
Ahead of last night’s game against Accrington Stanley, in which he was expected to play, Taylor had the praise of manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink ringing in his ears for his performance in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat away to MK Dons.
Especially in the first half, it was Taylor who kept popping up to intercept the home sides’s attempts to pass their way through the Brewers, several times launching Burton back on to the attack.
“Terry Taylor was magnificent in the middle of the park,” said Hasselbaink.
The manager has made no secret of his high hopes for the 19-year-old midfielder but has also been so determined to nurture him carefully that Taylor has not played a great deal of football so far this season.
The Dons game was only his third League start. He was praised for his previous one, in the 1-0 win away to Fleetwood Town, but was an unused substitute in the next two and was then away on international duty with Wales Under-21s.
Taylor acknowledges that the international breaks have not helped him get established in the team. But there is not another until March.
“That’s good in a way. I’ve had loads of breaks, almost one every month and that makes it hard to get momentum in the team, so it’s a good thing, even though I enjoy going away,” said Taylor.
“He (Hasselbaink) had someone watching me when I was away with the national team.
“Then he spoke to me when I got back and put me straight back in, which I’m pleased about. It shows his faith in me.”
Taylor speaks more like a seasoned pro than a teenager and maintains the Brewers’ recent poor form has not damaged morale too much.
“The team aren’t really down, although no-one’s happy with how it’s gone in the last few games,” he said.
“There’s still a good mood around us. We know that it only takes one game to change everything and then we can go on and do well for a few games.
“We obviously want to make our
home games as hard as possible (for the opponents). We don’t want anyone to come to our ground and get an easy game.”
The Brewers did not create the chances they wanted to in the Dons defeat but for much of the game they matched the home side in most areas. “It was frustrating,” said Taylor. “We knew they were going to be good on the ball but, for the most part, we kept them at bay, kept them in their own half.
“I don’t think either team had loads of chances. Our press was pretty succesful, especially in the first half, but it’s
about us creating more chances when we go forward.
“We went in at half-time thinking we were on top, just keep doing what we were doing.
“The game could have gone either way – just one chance and one drop of the ball and it could have been us who went 1-0 up.
“Their goal was a bit sloppy from us. We knew that was their strength, their attacking players coming off into the pockets and then looking to run in behind. We’d actually worked on it a lot but that one, we didn’t time it right and he got in.”