How that JFH magic worked the first time
Hasselbaink improved a team whose title charge was faltering
BURTON Albion did not look like a team ready to sail away with the League Two title the last time Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink turned up at the Pirelli Stadium.
They looked decent but a third run to the play-offs was shaping us as the best of their ambitions at the time.
Gary Rowett had done well to get them to the play-offs in two successive seasons, losing in the semifinals to Bradford City and then losing in the final to Fleetwood Town after the sweetest of semi-final wins over Phil Brown’s cocky Southend United side.
Since the play-offs were invented, the game’s history is littered with teams who have had a massive hangover after a failed post-season campaign.
The clubs who have stayed down have often found themselves fighting relegation next time around and Oxford United have made a bad start this season after losing out last time.
Therefore, the fact that the Brewers were in contention a third time was pleasing.
They began the 2014-15 season well, new signing Lucas Akins scoring the only goal to beat Oxford away, and they won six of the first seven games, drawing the other.
Then they hit a blip. It was already apparent that Rowett was prepared to listen to offers. He had travelled to Blackpool to meet the Oystons, the controversial family who owned the club, but, since he has a decent collection of brain cells, it was not difficult to turn them down.
Could the players have become unsettled?
Whatever, they lost three of the next four games, conceding three goals in each. Alex MacDonald’s sensational free kick earned a win away to Northampton Town and Damien McCrory and Lee Bell both smashed in goal of the season contenders in a spectacular 4-3 win away to Carlisle United but it was five defeats in eight when the Brewers lost 1-0 with a low-key, forgettable performance away to Stevenage on October 25.
The home side did not record a shot but Ian Sharps scored an own goal. Rowett said it was not a game he would have paid to watch but, as the travelling supporters trailed away from the ground, the news that Rowett was imminently taking the Birmingham City job filtered through.
If you think Hasselbaink saw a big task in front of him when he watched Burton lose 5-1 at home to Oxford, imagine Rowett’s thoughts. Birmingham were slaughtered 8-0 at home by Bournemouth while the Brewers were losing to Stevenage.
Nevertheless, blip or no blip, Rowett departed with Burton third in League Two.
Caretaker manager Mike Whitlow oversaw a 1-1 draw with Plymouth Argyle and an FA Cup exit, by 5-0, away to Barnsley, while we waited to see what rabbit chairman Ben Robinson would pull out of the hat this time.
He would have enjoyed revealing Hasselbaink as the new boss. The bookies and the several hundred speculation website had not had an inkling.
As a player, Hasselbaink brought with him a bigger name than Nigel Clough, even if Clough’s family connection might have shaded the fame game in this country overall.
His playing career had ended in 2008 with 233 goals in 520 games, while Leeds United, Atletico Madrid and Chelsea had coughed up £29m between them for his services.
Now the charismatic, eloquent Hasselbaink wanted to coach.
Robinson was not star-struck. Some club owners or chairmen are swayed by a famous name when they make appointments and it costs them dearly.
But Hasselbaink had been – still was – taking his badges. He had sought advice, spending time, for example, observing training with
Steve McClaren at Derby County’s Moor Farm. He had found a low-key first job, with Royal Antwerp in Belgium.
There was a spark about the Pirelli as soon as Hasselbaink was in place. His first game in charge brought a 3-1 win away to Wycombe Wanderers.
MacDonald scored a sublime second goal, flying down the left, frantically pointing to where he wanted the ball, which Matty Palmer duly delivered and slotting an assured finish.
“Jimmy told me there’s no need to blast it – pass it into the net,” he said later. Hasselbaink was already being listened to and understood.
The Brewers were back in the groove, save for a 1-0 defeat away to Shrewsbury Town. It was the only defeat of Hasselbaink’s first 16 games in charge
By the time they beat Dagenham & Redbridge 3-1 away in February,
Jimmy told me there’s no need to blast it – pass it into the net. Alex MacDonald, after scoring against Wycombe Wanderers
hitting back with a salvo of goals after falling behind in the 76th minute, they were top of the table.
Nasser El Khayati had been brought in from the Dutch third division and Tom Naylor from Derby County on loan, two significant additions to the very strong squad Rowett had left behind.
Then came the next and only remaining blip.
Accrington Stanley edged the Brewers 1-0, then so did Newport County in a surprise result at the
Pirelli Stadium.
It was not enough to knock Burton off the top – and they did not lose again in the remaining 12 games, winning nine.
In the next game, crucially, on his debut on loan, Belgian Florent Cuvelier came off the bench to hit a 90thminute winner.
He went off injured in stoppage time, never played for the team again and therefore had a nine-minute “career” with Burton – but that was a hell of an important goal.
Promotion was secured with two games to spare with a 2-1 win away to Morecambe.
Only Shrewsbury, two points behind, could catch the Brewers for the title and they still could after both won the following week.
Hasselbaink’s stock could hardly have been higher and when the Sky TV cameras turned up for a documentary, he gave them the immortal line about Burton being his Barcelona.
The final game, away to old rivals Cambridge United, proved to be a thriller, as Stuart Beavon headed Albion in front early before they fell behind by the 69th minute and had goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin sent off.
Full-back Phil Edwards, one of the most popular players who has worn a Burton shirt, then took matters into his own hands, striding forward to thrash in a rising 25-yard shot and a Brewers winner seemed inevitable, being turned in from close range
by Liverpool loanee Kevin Stewart with two minutes left.
Hasselbaink, ice cool, measured and a man who does not waste words, let his hair down that night back in Burton.
He was to be found for a while in the Coopers Tavern in the town, leading choruses of We Are The Champions alongside a beaming chairman, before they moved next door for an Indian meal.
Looking back, most of Hasselbaink’s post-match comments were about hard work and organisation and, as we saw last week, they still are.
“We have worked the players exceptionally hard,” said Hasselbaink after promotion was secured.
One would imagine today’s players will find themselves worked exceptionally hard, too.
We will soon find out if it is enough.