Bennett revival is a big factor in Brewers’ form under Paterson
IT IS clear that manager Martin Paterson has influenced many things in his short time with Burton Albion but one notable factor has been the improvement in the form of Mason Bennett.
Bennett, a summer signing for the Brewers after leaving Millwall, has been a revelation in the last two matches especially, the back to back away wins against Bristol Rovers and Leyton Orient.
But it is notable that to get to those two games, he has been involved in all of Paterson’s games in charge.
He is the only one of the strikers who started the season, assuming Bobby Kamwa is not considered a striker, to stay in the first-team squad since Dino Maamria’s departure.
That is not necessarily something that would have been certain earlier in the campaign.
Bennett had a couple of injury absences and struggled to make an impact when he did play.
His work-rate is never in question but there were too many times when it was not accompanied by an end product.
Paterson, though, clearly sees something he can work with in Bennett.
You would not necessarily say he and the manager were like-for-like as strikers but both are not the tallest and both set great store by workrate.
Bennett has started four of Paterson’s six games in charge and still been on the pitch at the end of three of them, which has not too often been the case in his career.
And in the last two matches, the end product has been there.
Bennett has responded as well as anyone to the manager’s call for freedom of expression in the final third and the brilliant backheel which sent Ademola Ola-Adebomi away to set Mark Helm up for the second goal against Rovers defined it.
The backheels were in evidence again against Orient but, better still, so was a goal.
There was some criticism of O’s keeper Solomon Brynn when Bennett’s 72nd-minute shot got past him but look back and see how hard Bennett hit it.
The shot was low and skiddy, not at all at what they call “a good height” for a keeper and it fizzed under him – the goal of a technically adept player. Bennett’s hold-up play in the first win drove Rovers mad as they fouled him repeatedly and the Orient performance was almost as good.
It is good to see Bennett playing with such confidence and the hope is that he can stay fit to continue doing so.
His after-match interviews with Radio Derby and the club website were full of smiles and an insight that perhaps people do not give him credit for.
That he is enjoying his football again, as he told Radio Derby, was evident.
“We’re buzzing. It’s back to back away wins now and it takes all of the squad,” said Bennett.
“The lads are staying together and it’s important we keep that squad togetherness and make sure we believe, every game we go into, that we can win it.
“I’m fuming with myself at times because I get opportunities and I want to be scoring more goals.
You put a shift in for the team and you know that eventually your luck will turn. Mason Bennett
“I got the reward (against) Orient and it all comes from the base of hard work.
“You put a shift in for the team and you know that eventually your luck will turn and you score a goal.
“I want to be on that pitch and in the trenches with the boys – especially the skipper (John Brayford). He lives for that.
“I’m here to help the team, I’ll listen to what the gaffer says in terms of instructions for each position and I’ll just take it on board.”
It is also not lost on Bennett that, at 26, he is very much one of the senior players in a squad loaded with young forwards.
As someone who made his first team debut at 15, he has been around and seen a lot – not all of it good, of course.
But he recognises that he has experience to pass on now.
“I had it when i was growing up, a lot of senior lads around me, like David Nugent and Martyn Waghorn (at Derby) and Matt Smith (at Millwall),” he said.
“I want to use that experience to pass on to the young lads here because they’ll need it.
“They have great talent but there’s other sides of the game that all forwards need help with and if I can help with that, then I’m doing my job.”
Moving on, he marvelled at the determination shown by his defensive team-mates and says it can inspire the forwards.
“You see them every week, the amount of blocks they get in games,” he said.
“You watch them back and think, jeez, how’ve you blocked that?
“But it just shows the character and heart we’ve got in the squad.
“You want to help them out, they put their bodies on the line for the team and we need to get the goals for them to reap the rewards.”
And finally – and this is part of the Paterson influence too – he had a words for the 377 Burton supporters who were there for the club’s first visit to Orient’s Brisbane Road.
“I don’t know how many there were but it sounded like thousands,” he said.
“They travelled well and they made a right racket and you want to reward them.”
Right now, Bennett is making a good noise himself, for all the right reasons.