JFH happy with how Portugal trip went for Albion

JIMMY Floyd Hasselbaink was understandably looking at the whole week in Portugal rather than the specific performance against Hibernian when he spoke after the Brewers’ friendly on Friday.

After a full-on warm weather training week, Burton were beaten 4-2 by the Scottish Premiership side.

On the downside, the Brewers looked somewhat disjointed with much of their play and rarely put a string of passes together.

Weighed against that, Hibs, welldrilled by former Sunderland manager Lee Johnson, were ahead of Burton in their preparation, plus, Albion sent out different teams in each half.

And their second goal, a nicelyworked team move from their own half, showed what they are capable of when they do get the chance to pass the ball through the opposition.

Manager Hasselbaink said he was pleased with what his side got from the pre-season trip to Vilamoura on the Algarve, although there were one or two niggles.

Cameron Borthwick-Jackson was withdrawn in the first half against Hibernian with a dead leg, while Conor Shaughnessy was not risked due to a minor hamstring issue.

Jonny Smith has been building his fitness but is continuing his rehabilitation from the shoulder injury that curtailed his 2021-22 season and required an operation, so he was not risked against Hibs.

The match also came just too quickly for new signing Davis Keillor-Dunn, who only joined the Brewers halfway through the training camp.

“It was a good workout and a very good test,” Hasselbaink said after the Hibernian game.

“We played everybody, more or less, for 45 minutes. Because we didn’t have enough numbers, Charlie Lakin and Gassan Ahadme had to play a little bit more and the trialist too.

“Overall, it was just to get ourselves going and get them familiar with the work and playing football. We lost 4-2 but we did some good stuff.

“There is a lot of stuff also, obviously, that we need to work on and get better. But we looked sharp.”

Hasselbaink was pleased to see the squad bonding in Portugal – and says he is still working hard to bring players into the squad during the summer transfer window.

“It has been very good,” he said. “It’s a very important period because it’s bonding time, isn’t it?

“Players are spending a lot of time together and that is very important.

“We are still trying to get a few more in – fingers crossed.”

Certainly, the pictures coming back from Portugal suggested a squad largely in harmony, with plenty of mickey-taking and, while players were commenting on the hard work they were putting in on social media, they also appeared to relish it.

They are back in the real world now, having flown back at the weekend. The squad are off to play Stratford Town tomorrow night and Hasselbaink is planning to use a string squad again for the game.

“Cameron had a dead leg, so nothing too serious,” he said.

“Jonny still has his shoulder he is recovering from, Conor Shaughnessy had a little hamstring problem but it’s not too serious. And it was slightly too soon for Davis.

“Everybody needs to play (on Tuesday) but nobody is going to play 90 minutes yet.

“I might give some 60 now and, hopefully, we can get Shaughnessy back for then.

“For Jonny it will be a little bit too early.”