Brewers faithful forced to endure nightmare start to Pirelli season
CONOR LASTS A MINUTE AS ROVERS’ GOALS RAIN IN
TWO games. Seven goals against, none for, a red card for one of the two main centre-halves. A small handful of goal attempts.
IN their worst nightmares, surely no Burton Albion fan could have envisaged a worse start to the new season.
Where the Brewers go from here is hard to say. Bristol Rovers strolled to a 4-0 win in front of a disbelieving Pirelli Stadium crowd after Burton had Conor Shaughnessy sent off within the first minute.
It is often said that an Albion manager has the safest of jobs but, at the very least, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink must feel under real pressure now.
This felt as awful as the 5-1 defeat at home to Oxford United when Hasselbaink was coming in the door to rescue them previously.
There were two changes to the starting line-up as centre-half Sam Hughes returned from injury and Jonny Smith earned a start after his bright showing in the second half against Wycombe Wanderers last week. Quevin Castro and Joe Powell dropped to the bench.
The Brewers were in trouble within the first minute when John Marquis chased a long ball and, as Connor Shaughnessy poked the ball back towards Ben Garratt, the striker fell.
Deji Oshilaja had already committed a clearer foul on Aaron Collins, further out, but referee Ross Joyce was right to let play go on from that.
Granted, the referee does not have the benefit of watching the replay lots of times but Marquis appeared to go down some time after he realised the ball was well out of reach.
Nor did Mr Joyce reach immediately for a red card; perhaps we should assume he communicated with his linesman, who was up with play.
Antony Evans took the free kick from a central position and scored with it, curling it around the wall to Ben Garratt’s left in what by then was the fourth minute.
The Brewers needed to regroup for what was obviously going to be a long haul but could not get hold of the ball in the early minutes and, from an 11th-minute corner, a shot was deflected over for another corner.
From this, Evans sent over a deep cross from the left and James Connolly turned the ball in at the far post.
Evans then sent a 25-yard shot a foot over in the next attack.
Smith was booked in the 14th minute for a challenge on Harry Anderson, although he had appeared to win the ball.
Nothing was going right for Burton, although they got a 20th-minute corner away after an alarming scramble. The next chance fell to Sam Finley, who turned all too easily past Tyler Onyango and sent a 20-yard shot narrowly wide.
Rovers were using the extra man well, moving the ball around patiently to the delight of their supporters and when the Brewers did get forward after 26 minutes, Davis Keillor-Dunn mis-hit a cross from the left over everyone and out.
A quick break from Rovers saw Anderson run clear but he made a hash of an attempt to place the ball wide of Garratt from the edge of the box.
But it was 3-0 to Rovers in the 40th minute when Collins received the ball on the left jinked inside and smashed a brilliant shot into the far top corner, putting the Brewers into the same first-half position they had been in at Wycombe, although this time with 10 men.
Onyango had Burton’s first shot a minute later, twisting on the edge of the box, but he dragged it tamely wide.
In the 44th minute, it was four, Collins again picking the ball up on the left and, this time, beating Garratt with a low shot to the keeper’s right.
It was hard to imagine that the day could have been any worse for Burton, utterly devoid of confidence and unable to stop goals going in from scoring.
Calum Butcher replaced Cameron Borthwick-Jackson for the second half, the only change made, but the pattern did not immediately change, with a confident Rovers harrying
Burton out of possession constantly and home passes going astray.
The 52nd minute brought Tom Hamer’s first long throw of the day but a header from Butcher dropped easily for keeper James Belshaw.
Marquis, unmarked, stretched to head a cross from the right against the top of the bar in the 55th minute, then Hughes had to head another cross away for a corner before it reached Anderson.
After an hour, as Victor Adeboyejo fought for the ball near the left byeline, he appeared to have his legs taken from under him but the referee saw no foul.
A triple change after 62 minutes saw Castro, Powell and Gassan Ahadme replace Smith, Adeboyejo
and Onyango, while veteran Glenn Whelan came on for Finley for Rovers a couple of minutes later.
Hamer and Ahadme combined nicely on the left after 68 minutes before Hamer’s cross was headed over by Keillor-Dunn, who was stretching to reach it.
The merest crumb of comfort for the Brewers was that, as last week, they had improved a little. They could only use what remained to try to play as they know they must beyond this game.
Rovers broke from a Burton corner, substitute Harvey Saunders running 60 yards but Butcher got back to him just in time to block his shot away for a corner, a good test for the recently-arrived midfielder’s fitness. He had already added calmness to a besieged Burton midfield.
Burton came close in the 86th minute when Powell crossed low from the left and Castro flicked the ball goalwards but Belshaw made a good save to his left to scramble the ball away.
Calls for the manager’s head two games into a season are too much but supporters are looking at a run of two wins in 16 matches when these first two are tagged on to the end of last season and the pattern of games looks worryingly familiar, for all the changes and a pre-season of work.
Hasselbaink faces the biggest challenge of his managerial career to date.