Early signs pointing right way
IT WAS typical of Jake Buxton that his first reaction when asked how good it was to get his first League One win as a manager was to say “don’t congratulate me, congratulate the players.”
But I’ll bet the Chinese he says he has on a Saturday night (while catching up on watching football scouting videos) tasted especially good last weekend.
The manner of the victory over Accrington Stanley and the fact that his Burton Albion team stuck faithfully to their game plan even when things were not going especially well will have pleased him especially.
The Brewers tried to do things the right way from the first whistle but let us not kid ourselves that this was an especially good performance, as Buxton will know.
Accrington are not the only team in League One who will try to make a game scrappy and close their opponents down relentlessly but you know for sure they will always do it – and they are pretty good at it.
So, it is all very well to want to build patiently from the back, as Burton want to, but Accrington pressed goalkeeper Ben Garratt into going long whenever they could – his kicking has been spot on so far this season, by the way – and they hounded the back four constantly, too.
For a while, there was the uncomfortable pattern of Albion playing the ball across the back four, and back again, before one of them was left with no option but to launch it forward.
You do not want to be missing out a midfield with the potential and energy of Joe Powell, Stephen Quinn and Ryan Edwards in it and the attacking instincts of Steven Lawless.
Lawless needs time. He has produced moments of skill and vision which indicate how good he could be but the opportunities to run at opponents have not presented themselves yet as he adjusts to the hurly-burly of League One.
As the game wore on, the Brewers did it better.
Colin Daniel is looking like a man with a point to prove as he overlaps on the left and Lucas Akins is looking full of beans going at opponents on the right, as he did when he opened Accrington up for Powell’s goal.
But Accrington remain a tough nut to crack. Just as in the Carabao Cup tie between the teams, as long as the score stayed 1-0, you knew they were going to get balls in the box and they would be especially dangerous when a set-piece gave them a chance to bring their big defenders into the equation.
As good as John Brayford and, now Kieran Wallace, have been in the centre of defence so far, those are proving nervy situations for Burton so far this season.
Fleetwood Town’s giant defender, James Hill, won header after header
in the Brewers’ opening day defeat and Accrington’s Ross Sykes won nearly everything in the air in the first game between the teams.
He was heavily involved when they equalised on Saturday, too, initially with a strong burst down the right and a cross shot that hit the face of the bar, then with a big header at the far post when the ball was returned and it was that which the Brewers could not clear before Joe Pritchard forced the ball into the net.
The sense of deja vu was obvious for both teams. Accrington’s late equaliser had taken the Carabao tie to penalties and left them reflecting that, had it been a League match, they would have gone home with a point.
This time, they really were going home with a point but there was an admirable determination about the way Burton went after a second goal and they had their reward when Brayford, still with the attack after
Joe Powell’s corner, found the net from Ben Fox’s cross in the 87th minute.
It was a nice moment for Fox, settling into the side in what can be such a big season for him after losing the last one to a cruciate ligament injury, but it was a collectively brilliant one for the team.
The way Brayford raced to Buxton after scoring was a selfless indication of how much he knew the three points would mean to the boss and a clear indication, as the team gathered around their manager, of how much they are with him as he gets his managerial career off the ground.
The injury list is still worryingly long and the chances of further recruitment have certainly been dimmed by the news that supporters will not, after all, get the chance to come back in October.
But the indications are that all is very well in the dressing room with this group and an interesting season lies ahead.