Good Forest exercise for Brewers
BURTON Albion coped well with Nottingham Forest in a good pre-season workout, going down 1-0 to the newly-promoted Premier League side.
As always with pre-season matches, not too much can be concluded from the game, Forest starting with a relatively experienced side but tending to look livelier in the second half with a clutch of their under-23s introduced.
Not everything the Brewers tried to do worked out but a good deal of what they were trying was refreshing, with a lot of quick passing.
New signing Davis Keillor-Dunn was a livewire down the left and Gassan Ahadme had some good moments up front.
And Burton were solid in defence, apart from when defender Steve Cook met Cafu’s corner to thump in a header for the only goal after 56 minutes.
A first half in which Albion played a back four, with Conor Shaughnessy and Sam Hughes at the heart of it, looked especially solid and Hughes was the star of the show on the night, as he had arguably been against Hibernian in Portugal.
Working through a full pre-season for the first time in a while, Hughes is looking formidably strong and very much the player we expected him to be.
Notably, Forest’s record signing, Nigerian striker Taiwo Awoniyi, whose fee has been estimated at £17m, barely had a sniff.
It was Burton who went close first, Ahadme taking a pass from Deji Oshilaja, who was strong in midfield, working his way into the box and hitting the inside of the post with a shot.
Awoniyi shot over for Forest and they came closest after 17 minutes when Oli Hammond raced down the right and his cross saw Lyle Taylor one-on-one with
Ben Garratt and looking sure to score before the Burton keeper smothered his shot expertly.
Burton had another good chance when Shaughnessy found Ahadme in the box.
The young striker might have had a go himself but laid the ball to KeillorDunn in space to his left and his effort was blocked away for a corner.
The Brewers replaced one trialist with another at half-time, also sending on Ciaran Gilligan and William Kokolo for Shaughnessy and KeillorDunn.
Forest initially made no changes but were forced into one after 52 minutes when Taylor limped off. They then scored and, after 65 minutes, made eight changes, soon after Burton sent Louis Moult on for Ahadme.
The younger Forest players looked keen to impress, as well they might, and Albion began to see less of the ball, although the visitors did not create any real chances.
Kokolo made a couple of sharp darts down the left, as we have already seen he can, but the mass changes saw the game drifting towards a close.
Frazer Blake-Tracy and Charlie Williams came on for the last 17 minutes and the young midfielder had a great chance to equalise with almost the last kick.
Again Kokolo raced down the left and fired a good low cross. Williams had done well to be up with play and slid in but could not direct the ball on target.
It would have been a good end to the game for both him and Burton but no matter.
This was a good exercise for the Brewers, in which they acquitted themselves well, and Birmingham City and Sheffield United will also provide solid tests.