Just how could they have been worse still, yet again?
IN THE WAKE OF A DREADFUL LOSS TO CHELTENHAM, THE UNANSWERABLE QUESTION...
IT almost beggars belief. It is almost beyond explanation. Apologies in advance if you should read this and conclude that I, for one, have not successfully explained it.
How could almost the same Burton Albion team that beat Stevenage so efficiently, albeit not attractively, on Saturday, contrive to be so inept in a 2-1 defeat at home to Cheltenham Town three days later?
We have seen plenty of Jekyll and Hyde performances from the Brewers this season – well, for a few seasons – but, with the chips so firmly down, with the prize of virtually confirming League One survival in sight, with a team whose confidence could not have been high in front of them, the manager and players fluffed their lines spectacularly on Tuesday night.
What is it about playing at the Pirelli Stadium that is causing this?
We know the pitch is poor but we also know that successive teams have played half-decent football on it, enough to beat Burton anyway. One of those who did will not be in League One next season and another, in an even worse position than the Brewers, probably won’t be.
A few of the talking points from Tuesday night…
Nothing wrong with the atmosphere this time
With seven games on the trot lost at the Pirelli before Tuesday night, small wonder the atmosphere has not been great at home games of late.
The sense I have been getting is of apprehension at the start of games. When I am on a break from work, I am back on the Pop Side myself, where I spent the first 30 years of my time involved with this club, so I’m not merely commenting from the (relative) comfort of the press seats.
However well the Brewers have played at the start of games – and they have, sometimes, not least recently against Barnsley – there is the sense that it would not take much for things to turn against them.
However, on Tuesday, it may have been a relatively small crowd but the atmosphere was spot-on from the start. Fans had heeded the call, they responded to Saturday’s win and they were with the team.
The first half was poor… but
It was expected to be scrappy but at no stage did Burton manage to build up any head of steam against Cheltenham.
There was none of the enterprise they showed against Barnsley.
But they did not look in trouble either. I made it one shot off-target shot each before the Brewers scored.
How ironic that they should do so from a long throw that was not from Tom Hamer.
Jasper Moon’s are not as long but they reach the danger area and, for once, a Burton head got there first. You could not say Sam Hughes was aiming to plant his flick-on right on Steve Seddon’s foot but he did and Seddon, one of few to come out of the night in credit, despatched it with aplomb.
It had been poor but Burton were in front. It should have been enough, as it was against Stevenage.
And yet, it got worse
Here we are with the barrel-scraping again. It couldn’t be worse than the 1-0 home defeat to Vale could it? It was, against Oxford United.
It couldn’t be worse against Cheltenham, with a one-goal lead against a team who had lost four in a row, could it? It was. The Brewers flapped when Matty Taylor’s speculative header somehow looped in for an equaliser. He has been a thorn in Burton’s side a time or two before, often for Oxford.
Cheltenham sensed blood. They
would know all about the Pirelli Stadium’s recent record. If any visiting manager has trotted out the cliché recently that “it’s a difficult place to come”, he will not have meant it.
In the second half of this season, it has become the easiest place to come, statistically at least.
The Brewers have one more chance to end the Pirelli hoodoo, against Reading on Saturday and boy do they need to take it.
A bit more of Seddon’s resolve might have helped
It wasn’t just that he scored that Seddon won the sponsor’s man of the match award, or at least, it shouldn’t have been.
He battles and battles and he has some skill. In the second half, with nothing happening in attack for the Brewers, he picked a ball up just inside his own half and slid past two opponents, running directly at Cheltenham, just as he did when he scored against Derby County in January.
His attempt broke down but Burton were crying out for one or two more to show such positivity instead of passing it to someone else to try.
Whichever division Albion are in next season, a few more players with Seddon’s aggression and determination would not come amiss.
Others continue to struggle too
However bad Burton have been at home, they are surrounded by incompetence in a far from vintage
League One season. Somehow, they are still two points above the drop zone, despite one win in 12 games seeing them firmly at the bottom of the form table.
They have been handed so many chances to save themselves and continued to be on Tuesday night.
Only one of the bottom six, Cheltenham, obviously, have won their most recent game. Lincoln City’s away win against Oxford United on Tuesday night means they go to Cheltenham on Saturday with their play-off hopes still alive. Vale go to Bolton Wanderers and the Trotters’ need for a win to keep pressure on Derby County is obvious enough.
This may be clutching at straws – what else can we do – but even now, a win on Saturday could see Burton safe before the last day.
And no, I am not counting any chickens, not for a moment.
The Brewers have been handed so many chances to save themselves and continued to be on Tuesday night