Burton Albion – The season so far:

After last season’s incredible heroics from Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink to keep Burton up from what looked like an impossible challenge, a new year with fans back in the grounds brought optimism amongst the fanbase. And with a summer seeing 16 new faces through the Pirelli stadium door, compared to the 12 who were released by the club ahead of the new season.

With this all being said, astonishingly the brewers managed to bring all of these new faces in without spending a single transfer fee as Hasselbaink used the covid pandemic to his advantage knowing a lot of decent players would be released this summer, as most clubs looked to have a massive wage bill overhaul to make the books look solid.

The Dutchman worked hard to have the core group of new signings in the building before pre-season training really got going, hopes were high amongst both fans and club staff ahead of one of the toughest league one season ahead.

A set of pre-season fixtures that saw indifferent results, the brewers, unfortunately, lost new striker Louis Moult to an injury which would keep him out until December time, not what Jimmy Floyd wanted to hear just as the new season was to get going. To make matters worse, in the final pre-season fixture against Newcastle United, last season’s top scorer Kane Hemmings pulled up with a hamstring injury which would leave the brewers without a recognised striker going into that first league game against Shrewsbury.

The form so far…

As we approach November, Burton’s form has been very up and down, to say the least. A start which saw the Albion beating Sunderland and Ipswich in the month of August left the club 3 from 5. Since then, however, the club’s struggle against clubs ‘they should be beating’ continued with a heavy defeat away to Cambridge and scrappy draws against Cheltenham Town and Gillingham had left fans questioning how long this rebuild with a big squad overhaul would actually take.

The struggles have continued throughout September and October although the east Staffordshire outfit has managed victories over Portsmouth, Morecambe and Fleetwood have settled the worries slightly, the club will head into the busiest months of the football calendar in a measly 11th and a tough run of fixtures to come.