Burton
Albion 1
Sheffield United 3
English
Football League – Championship
In a
football sense, what constitutes a miracle?
Leicester
City winning the Premier League possibly? Maybe Nottingham Forest winning the
Football League and two European Cup’s in consecutive seasons?
Or, perhaps
it’s the rise of Wimbledon from non-league to winning the FA Cup, and on the
same vein, Wigan Athletic doing exactly the same, albeit over a much longer
time span?
In literary
terms, one of the great stories was charted in the book ‘The Miracle of Castel
di Sangro’ whereby writer Joe McGinnis spent a season following the minnows of
Italian football who confounded the odds and made it to Serie B. I guess as
well, you could have an argument for TSG Hoffenheim in Germany who have made it
to the Champions League, after being nothing more than a village club playing
in the fifth tier. However, the Hoffenheim story owes an awful lot to one man’s
money.
For me, one
of the greatest modern day miracles happened in May 2016 when Burton Albion
were promoted to the Championship, the second tier of English football. But to
really understand the magnitude of the achievement, it is worth examining the
timeline of a club and charting where they came from.
When I
first watched the Brewers in the late Seventies, they had just moved from the
First Division North of the Southern League, into the Northern Premier League.
At that time, that would have been the second tier of non-league football, so
in simple terms, it was the sixth level nationally.
Crowds were
decent at the old Eton Park, typically in the high hundreds, and for a bigger
game, four figures was commonplace. Neil Warnock was manager of the Brewers at
the time, and one game that stands out for me was an FA Cup First Round tie
against Windsor & Eton that they lost 2-1. The atmosphere that day was
incredible. Burton were a renowned cup side as well, with a game against
Leicester City in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup hitting the headlines
for all the wrong reasons due to crowd trouble at the Baseball Ground.
A move back
to the Southern League came in 1987, and to be fair, in the fourteen seasons
they spent in that competition, two second placed finishes came in the final
two seasons, but that was as good as it got for a club that flattered to
deceive.
The Home End |
By now,
Nigel Clough had arrived, and a decision was made to move back to the Northern
Premier League for the start of the 2001-02 season. They won the league at a
canter, losing just two games, amassing 104 points and scoring 106 goals.
Promotion to the Conference had been achieved, a status that had been many
years in the waiting for a club that many considered to be a sleeping giant.
It was in
the early seasons of the Conference that the club moved to the impressive
Pirelli Stadium which was effectively just over the road from the old Eton
Park. Combined with that, it was in January 2006 when an event happened which
unquestionably shaped what was to be the immediate future of Burton Albion
Football Club.
A run to
the Third Round of the FA Cup saw Albion draw the might of Manchester United at
home. In front of the TV cameras they performed a minor miracle in holding the
Red Devils to a 0-0 draw, thus earning a money spinning replay at Old Trafford.
Albion lost the replay 5-0 in front of a full house, but it mattered not,
financially the goalposts had moved hugely.
The club
missed out in the Conference Play Off’s in 2008, but the 2008-09 season was to
be a record breaking one. Under Clough’s leadership the Brewers stormed to a
huge lead at the top of the table, to the point where some bookmakers paid out
with months of the season still to go. Clough left the club and was appointed
into the hot seat at Derby County, Roy McFarland was given the task of steering
the ship home.
Pyro's Greet The Opening Blades Goal |
He very
nearly sank the ship! I was at a rammed Pirelli Stadium for the last home
against Oxford United where the title could have been sealed, a 1-0 defeat put
paid to that, so it went down to the final game at Torquay, results went in the
Brewers favour and the nailbiting end to the season was over. Burton Albion
were a Football League club.
The club
spent six seasons in League Two, twice missing out in Play Off’s, and we were
at the Final in 2014 when they narrowly lost 1-0 to Fleetwood Town at Wembley.
The Championship finally came at something of a canter in 2014-15, and League
One beckoned.
All
expectations were exceeded in that inaugural League One season, Manager Jimmy
Floyd Hasselbaink took them to the summit and a returning Clough pushed them
over the promotion line on the last day of the season at Doncaster Rovers. It
was now the Championship, games against Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Aston
Villa, Wolves and Leeds United. This was going to be very different to the
Southern League Division One North and away days at the likes of Barry Town and
Wellingborough Town.
The club
survived their first season in the Championship, finishing twentieth out of
twenty four clubs. Both Derby and Forest were beaten at the Pirelli, while I
was present on the night the Brewers came away from Pride Park with a point. It
was an unthinkable result on an unthinkable occasion, and it was that night
that really made me realise just how far this club has come. Oh what it must
have been like to have started supporting the Brewers in the Seventies and to
be now watching this?
This season
has been tough as expected, and with Sheffield United due in town needing a win
to return to the top of the league, it was time to witness a Championship game
at the Pirelli for the first time.
Eton Park It Is'nt |
What I like
about a trip to the Pirelli is that the feel of the club is no different now
than it was when they were a non-league club. Parking is easy, the local pubs
friendly, getting tickets is not a problem as crowds of around 5,000 are well within
the capacity of the stadium. The food and drink in the ground is good, the
welcome is very hospitable and the fans, while passionate, are no bother at
all. I said to my mate Mark (a United fan who couldn’t get a ticket for the
away end), that it still felt like I was going to a game in the Conference when
I sat in the bar, and I don’t for one minute ever expect that feeling to go
away, and I suspect it’s the same for many Brewers fans.
United took
the lead through a dodgy Billy Sharp penalty, but Matty Palmer scored a
cracking equaliser from distance. Sharp beat the defence to make it 2-1, but
then disaster struck when highly influential Blades midfielder Paul Coutts was
stretchered off with a broken leg.
This seemed
to knock United who weren’t as effective in large periods of the second half,
but a third goal did eventually come via Leon Clarke who bundled the ball home.
United were
worthy winners, and played with a certain confidence and swagger in the first
period. Albion’s problem is scoring goals, they are a tight and well organised
outfit but create few chances. Could their time in the Championship be up this
season?
I suspect
it will be, but I’m pretty sure few tears will be shed, because for most Albion
fans, to have had two seasons playing at this level of football, would have
been simply unthinkable all of the years ago, and even up until recently.
It is a
modern day miracle, brought about by hard work, good judgment, sensible decisions
and absolutely World class leadership by Chairman Ben Robinson.
Forget
Leicester, Forest, Wimbledon and the likes, this achievement is as good, if not
better than any seen before in modern day football. Maybe when normality sets
in (whatever that may look like), only then will the footballing World begin to
understand the magnitude of what they have been witnessing.
Until then…….
The Packed Blades End |
Excellent article Neil and a game I enjoyed in your company. #utb
ReplyDelete