Brewers aim to back up growing confidence now
PLAYERS HAVE TO TURN THE INFORMATION INTO RESULTS
BURTON Albion will put what man- ager Jake Buxton believes is a growing confidence to the test at home to Crewe Alexandra tomorrow (3pm).
Four points from games against League One top 10 sides Charlton Athletic and Sunderland have given Buxton’s squad a big lift but he knows now that the trick is to add some consistency, especially at home.
While both of the Brewers’ League wins have been at the Pirelli so far, most of their better performances have come on the road.
Their lesser displays have been against sides around them in the table, notably the home defeats to Rochdale and Blackpool.
Crewe, as so often, will provide an unpredictable test.
Promoted last season, they continue to stick to the passing principles instigated by Dario Gradi many years ago and a record of six wins, eight defeats and one draw suggests that sometimes it works and sometimes not.
It worked on Tuesday night, when they came from 2-0 down at home to Swindon Town to win 4-2, piling up 26 shots in the game.
“All teams pose a threat. Crewe dominated the ball on Tuesday night against Swindon, having more than 500 passes,” said Buxton.
“After going two goals down, they won but we’re preparing for them as well as we can do.”
Nonetheless, Crewe, despite what they did on Tuesday, have scored two goals less than Burton in the League and Buxton volunteered a reference to his side’s continuing search for a first clean sheet since February.
“It’s coming,” he said. “From the back four and Kieran O’Hara to Ryan Edwards and Lucas Akins at the top end, everybody’s contributing to try to get the clean sheet we desperately deserve.
“To have Michael Bostwick, Sam Hughes and John Brayford on the pitch now and given the amount of balls that have been delivered into the box in recent games, you can see that we are dealing with situations a little better.
“They throw their bodies on the line, all three of them, and a couple of performances have deserved clean sheets: Shrewsbury away, where John Brayford was outstanding, and on Tuesday night. We rode our luck at times but for the effort we put in, we could easily have got a clean sheet.”
Against Sunderland, as against Shrewsbury previously, Burton had got ahead away from home but could quite hang on and the Black Cats equalised in thr 85th minute.
“We were a bit disappointed to concede but they did create a few more chances than us,” Buxton admitted.
“There were some good performances, though, with a lot of defensive work done to a high standard.
“Overall, we’d have taken a point before the game and it puts us in a good position going into Saturday.
“You can see the confidence is growing with each game. We’re having more consistency now through the whole squad.”
Buxton was able to name an unchanged match-day squad on Tuesday, a rare luxury this season.
“We’ve had injuries, we’ve had the Covid stuff and it was nice to be able to pick the same side and have that continuity,” he said.
“It’s easier for me to manage when players are performing and I like to be loyal to players if they do. They will keep the shirt.
“The buy-ins are always key. You tell the players information regarding how we think they can beat the opposition and how we can stop them but if you don’t back that up with results, it’s tough.
“That’s part of the job, to make sure the players are on side and believing we can win games.”
Overall, he was pleased with the Sunderland effort.
“We had a good structure without the ball, defending well and looking a threat on the counter,” he added.
“Lucas had a chance to make it 2-0 and we had opportunities from a couple of set-pieces, with headers from Michael Bostwick.
“We want to be a good footballing side but we have to make good decisions without the ball as well.”