Highs and lows but a good year all round for Albion
Burton Albion would be beyond the halfway point in the League One season in terms of games played by now if Covid-19 had not caused the last three games to be postponed. As it stands, they are one match short of halfway but, even so, it has been an eventful few months. In the last part of a review of the first half of the season, Colston Crawford looks at what happened in November and December and reflects on a momentous calendar year since Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink returned.
NOVEMBER began well for Burton Albion as they successfully negotiated an awkward-looking FA Cup first round tie away to Fleetwood Town.
Conditions are often foul on the Fylde coast but this was an especially evil day; the rain horizontal at times, the wind blustery and unpredictable. Fleetwood’s ground is one where the press are issued with towels to attempt to keep their equipment dry.
Great conditions, then, for a traditional FA Cup battle. Gratifyingly for all connected to the club, it was the Brewers who, as they say, “wanted it more.”
They relished the battle, got stronger, and shrugged off the now customary early goal against. Joe Powell equalised the 12th-minute opener with an instinctive and emphatic shot from 20 yards after quite brilliant work by Kane Hemmings to keep the ball in play.
The weather was at its worst when Tom Hamer and Daniel Jebbison conjured up a delightful winning goal after 77 minutes, the pair swapping passes before Hamer dinked a pass over the defence for the striker to run on to.
It would have been astonishing on a bright summer’s day. To do it in torrential rain was scarcely believable and out of kilter with most of the rest of the game.
Once again, the hope was that Burton could build on the 2-1 win but they caught Charlton Athletic on the way up under caretaker manager Johnnie Jackson and the Addicks nicked a 1-0 win at the Pirelli Stadium.
There was not much to choose between the teams when Burton then went to Stadium MK but they were undone by one simple pass down the middle and Max Watters, having squandered several chances, put one away for a second 1-0 loss on the trot. Now the Cup win was forgotten. Four straight League One defeats had seen Burton score only once and they needed a boost.
They got one with the visit of Accrington Stanley. Normally the toughest of teams to beat, Accy have nonetheless had a hard time at the Pirelli of late and two goals each for Jebbison and Jonny Smith, who both might have doubled those tallies, gave Burton a 4-0 win. It was good to see Smith, especially, looking his old self again.
Accy looked quite the worst side to appear at the Pirelli in the season and their wily old manager, John Coleman, was subdued after it – yet they have won four of five League games since, including ending
Yet again, the first sniff of the start of a decent run for the Brewers was nipped in the bud
Rotherham United’s 21-match unbeaten run, and sit five points ahead of Burton. There is just no predicting football.
The following week, Doncaster Rovers looked – and demonstrably are – worse than Accrington and Burton should have buried them by more than 2-0, with goals from Tom O’connor and Jebbison.
Yet again, the first sniff of the start of a decent run for the Brewers was nipped in the bud.
They really should have beaten League Two Port Vale in the FA Cup at home, especially once Ryan Leak’s first goal for the club gave them a 1-0 first-half lead which they kept until the 79th minute.
It was day for holding on for a scrappy win but two goals in three minutes by substitute Denis Politic gave Vale victory.
Away games against two of the clubs relegated from the Championship, Wycombe Wanderers and Rotherham, were viewed with trepidation by supporters and did not
result in a point, Wycombe winning 2-1 and Rotherham 3-1.
Yet they were very different performances, the Wycombe one a frustratingly tame surrender, the Rotherham one a distinctly unlucky result after a stirring toe-to-toe battle.
And that, so far, has been it, with the last three games having been called off for Covid reasons (with the addition of injuries, it would appear, in the case of the latest one, against Bolton Wanderers, in which Burton were ready to play).
The Brewers close the year in 13th, closer, as assistant manager Dino Maamria pointed out in midweek, to the drop zone than the play-offs, but things must be kept in perspective.
Maamria and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink have been with the club for almost exactly a year.
It was New Year’s Day when chairman Ben Robinson excitedly revealed he had persuaded Hasselbaink to return.
When he did, the Brewers were eight points from safety, had the worst goal difference in the division, having conceded 50 goals in 22 matches, and had played more games than anyone else.
Most supporters had accepted the Dutchman would be rebuilding in League Two.
What followed, two points per game on average for the rest of the season and survival confirmed with three games to spare, was the stuff of dreams. It had been as good as achieved three or four matches before that.
Sure, Burton have not been consistent enough so far this season as Hasselbaink tries to work out a winning formula with a squad he admits is a little bigger than it needs to be.
But the second half of last season has put a lot of credit in the bank.
It is not realistic, surely, to expect the team to suddenly challenge some very big spenders at the top end of the table.
As the Peterborough owner, Darragh Macanthony, pointed out after his club were promoted last season, he would not have wanted to try to do it this season, given the increase in competition.
Apart from Rotherham, Wycombe and Sheffield Wednesday coming down, Bolton arrived back from League Two with new money behind them – they will, it seems, splash cash on Accrington’s Dion Charles as soon as the window opens – and Wigan, having escaped relegation last season, also have new money.
They are added to Portsmouth, Ipswich Town, Sunderland, Plymouth Argyle, MK Dons and Oxford United as clubs who all feel they ought to be playing at a higher level.
We will see what the new year brings but the start of 2022 finds Burton Albion in a better place than the start of 2021 and continuing to look like a more stable, sustainable club than many of those around them.