Better service key to ending the Brewers’ goal drought

ONE bare statistic is unavoidable for Burton Albion – only two teams, the bottom two, in League One have scored fewer than their 16 goals in 18 matches going into tonight’s home game against Accrington Stanley.

The Brewers’ defence has proved to be prone to the odd lapse, not least as the last two games have ended in 1-0 defeats, but it is generally solid and it is plain that the big improvement must somehow come at the other end.

Forwards Kane Hemmings, Daniel Jebbison and Lucas Akins have seven League goals between them, the last one coming seven games ago in defeat away to Plymouth Argyle.

That means more than half of the League goals have come from elsewhere on the pitch, midfielder Tom O’Connor leading the way with four.

Hemmings is an established finisher at this level and Jebbison looks like developing into one but, as assistant manager Dino Maamria acknowledged, chances have not been coming their way of late.

“We need to get goals from all over the pitch and we have been doing that,” said Maamria.

“But Kane, Daniel, Lucas, they are good forwards and I’m sure when they get the right service, they’ll get goals.

“We’ve got to make sure we get them that right service – and then support them in the box as well.”

The implication is that the onus is on Burton’s creative players to become as potent as they have sometimes promised they could be and, to do so, the balance needs to fall between structure and flair.

“We have enough creative players in the camp,” said Maamria.

“We give them ideas of course. We give them percentage ideas, certain runs they need to make that can create more problems for the opposition.

“But we want to give them freedom, too, because, ultimately, they’re the ones on the pitch having to make the decisions.

“Our decision-making in the final third needs to be better. We need more bodies in the box, for sure, and that’s how we’ll progress.”

On the back of a four-match losing run, Burton have started to look tentative in possession, even when they have plenty of it, and Maamria says they have been looking back at what they were doing so well earlier in the season.

“If you’re a player, surely (the losing run) is in the back of your mind but we have to look at it differently,” he said.

“We have to look at ourselves. What did we do really well when we were winning games? We need to go back to those things and we’ve spoken about that.

“We’ve showed them some clips from those games and we need to go back to what made us a better team, harder to break down and a threat.

“We’ve had a tough run, tough games with tough opponents and a couple of red cards in those games. We’d be lying to say they didn’t affect us, they did.

“But we need to have more control of the ball when we have it.

“Actually, on Saturday, I thought we controlled possession really well. There are not many teams who will go to MK Dons and have more possession than them.

“But they were more clinical than us. When they had their chances, they looked a threat.

“We didn’t look as much of a threat and that’s where we need to improve.”

Jacob Maddox, who tweaked his hamstring on Saturday, is expected to be out for a fortnight and the Brewers have Michael Mancienne suspended tonight after collecting his fifth booking of the season.

But winger Jonny Smith is available again after completing a three-match suspension.