Hasselbaink is left under no illusions after the worst yet
IF Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had any doubts about the enormity of the job he has taken on with Burton Albion before Saturday, he can have none now.
Given the chance to impress the new boss at home to Oxford United, the Brewers instead turned in their most inept performance of the season to lose 5-1. It could have been more.
Make no mistake, I choose my words carefully in calling it the most inept.
The 3-1 defeat at home to Northampton Town, we had hoped, was the lowest point.
The 5-1 hammering away to Lincoln City on Boxing Day was not as bad, since Lincoln are notably better than Northampton.
Saturday was worse. Oxford were organised and tidy and needed to be nothing more to brush Burton aside.
If there is a positive, it is that Hasselbaink did not see a team playing deceptively well with the so-called
“new manager bounce.”
He saw, laid bare, how low on confidence and how disorganised the squad is. He saw how big his job will be and, in his post-match interview, he was laudably positive about getting stuck into it.
We are about to find out how good a manager this charismatic man really is.
And he is going to have to be very good indeed if Burton are to stay in League One.
Hasselbaink and his new assistant Dino Maamria watched from the stands initially on Saturday.
Coach Chris Beardsley, for his sole game in charge, set Burton up with three at the back, John Brayford, John-Joe O’Toole and Kieran Wallace.
Michael Bostwick was in front of them in a theoretically packed midfield in which Lucas Akins and Colin Daniel were wing-backs, with no place for Charles Vernam, Joe Powell playing off Kane Hemmings up front.
But it is always the case that it is not about the formation and the latest attempt to freshen up the team did not work.
The opening half-hour alone would have told Hasselbaink most of what he needed to know as the Brewers went three goals down.
The first, in the ninth minute, was a calamitous goal, of which there have been too many this season, as Kieran O’Hara hesitated before leaving his area to try to reach a long through ball from Josh Ruffels and was never going to get there first.
Striker Matty Taylor did and lifted the ball over the Burton keeper into the net.
O’Hara still has the makings of a fine goalkeeper but there are a number of times in a season when he misjudges a dash from his line.
There was not much he could do about the second goal, after 18 minutes, but Olamide Shodipo had too much time to turn and make room for himself before wrapping his right foot around a fine shot high to O’Hara’s right after Oxford had regained possession from Brayford’s headed clearance.
In the 27th minute, Ciaran Gilligan was relieved not to present Oxford with a third when O’Hara managed to drop on an attempted headed clearance that was going into his own net.
But it was three in the 31st minute – a simple goal as Shodipo turned in Sam Long’s cross from the right, nipping ahead of Brayford.
Burton were a complete shambles again, as they had been against Lincoln, at this stage, and it should have been four in the 33rd minute when O’Hara slipped making a clearance, presenting the ball to James Henry, who sidefooted wide of an open goal from 20 yards.
The Brewers pulled one back out of the blue in the 41st minute when Wallace, on the left, found Stephen Quinn in space 20 yards out and his shot took a deflection, beat keeper Jack Stevens to his right and hit the post, trickling across goal for Kane Hemmings to turn in the 100th League goal of his career, spread through the English and Scottish divisions. If there was one other positive from the day, it was Hemmings scoring for a third successive game, all poacher’s efforts.
He was lucky to stay out of referee Peter Wright’s notebook as frustration got the better of him in a series of verbal tirades at the officials later in the game; compassionate refereeing in fact, to recognise the reasons and content himself with a “calm down” lecture.
Beardsley’s appearance on the pitch at half-time suggested Hasselbaink was addressing the players during the break. Could he possibly make a difference?
Ryan Edwards replaced Quinn for the second half and soon volleyed wide as the Brewers at least started
Oxford were organised and tidy and needed to be nothing more to brush Burton aside.
the second half on the front foot.
The early energy, though, was set back when Oxford scored a fourth in the 56th minute. Henry’s simple square ball from the right reached Ruffels 22 yards out and he hit a clean strike low to O’Hara’s right.
Now Oxford were on top again and a slick, all too easy passing move cut Burton’s defence to pieces in the 63rd minute, Ruffels applying the finising touch to Long’s low cross from the right from 12 yards.
The Brewers simply had to keep plugging away, the rest of the game not now being about the result but about showing the new manager something for the weeks to come.
Hasselbaink will have seen Edwards’ willing running, later substitute Vernam’s ability to take on a defender and get in a cross and the fact that Hemmings cares, but not an awful lot else.
Bostwick limped off in the 80th minute, a sorry end to a difficult afternoon for him.
There was almost a second consolation in the 86th minute when Vernam raced away after a sloppy pass from Oxford in the centre circle before crashing a rising shot off the face of the bar.
Mercifully, Burton made it to the end without further damage and the real work starts today.