Is Sam worth a punt now as Brewers seek a goal threat?
HE who shall not be named scored a hat-trick for Burton Albion on Tuesday night as a relatively strong Brewers team beat Stapenhill 6-0 in a friendly.
It is an open secret – since he is so recognisable – that the trialist is experienced striker Sam Winnall and this was his second public outing on trial with Burton.
He did not score in the first, a goalless draw away to Belper Town, and although the level of the opposition on Tuesday night obviously has to be taken into account, the predatory instincts which have brought Winnall 99 senior career goals, more than half of them for Barnsley, were in good order.
A poached second attempt after hitting the post from a corner, a header from a Charlie Lakin cross and taking advantage of a defensive mix-up to dart around two defenders brought him goals.
He also combined with Louis Moult for one of Moult’s two goals and the other goal was scored late on by academy graduate Charlie Williams.
Asked if anything might be happening with Winnall last week, manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink gave a non-committal “not yet.”
It seems inconceivable that the recruitment Hasselbaink still wants to do before the transfer window closes will not include a striker, given the lack of experience of all but Moult in that position on the staff.
It seems all too simple to suggest Winnall should now be the experienced striker the Brewers plainly need.
Hasselbaink will be wanting to see enough evidence that Winnall’s fitness is up to scratch, after his release from Oxford United, for whom he made only five League One starts in a total of 52 appearances across two years.
Winnall had a loan spell as a teenager with Burton, scoring seven goals in 19 games in the second half of the 200-11 season. He looked the part then.
It was between 2013 and 2017, with Scunthorpe United and then Barnsley, that he had the most prolific spell of his career, a combined total of 71 goals in 165 appearances.
Since then he had been with Sheffield Wednesday and scored six goals in a loan spell with Derby County in the 2017-18 season before joining Oxford.
We wait to see if the club feel he is worth a punt now.