Burton Albion Football Club

The Brewers had to come back from a two-goal deficit to salvage a hard-fought draw away to Chesterfield on Saturday morning.

Burton had found themselves two goals down inside the opening half hour and had even received a let off by the way of a missed penalty from the hosts, but goals from Marcus Dinanga and under 16 player Max Smith drew the Brewers level in the second half.

Burton had looked brilliant throughout but had lacked any real end product, with Mirza Sedjic forcing a good save with an effort from range being the closest they went in the first half. Burton’s best moment of quality actually came from their goalkeeper Charlie Hornby, who made a stunning double save 15 minutes in. However, the referee pointed to the spot when he adjudged there to be shirt pulling in the box following the keeper’s heroics. The subsequent penalty beat Hornby but rattled off the post.

Joe Sbarra and Sedjic were looking exciting for the visitors, and it was Sbarra who caused trouble on the half hour mark when he skipped past two defenders only to see his resulting shot blocked.

The second half saw Burton on the back foot from the start. They will have felt lucky as Chesterfield missed a host of chances and even hit the bar before Burton started their fight back. 

Marcus Dinanga was the man to light the spark as he got on the end of a cross, after being afforded far too much space, and powered home his header to make it 2-1. Chesterfield seemed to be unable to retain their shape when Burton took a short corner and 15-year-old Max Smith was able find the net from an almost identical position to the first goal. 

Dylan Garnett was the star of the show as he consistently caused trouble as he ran at the Chesterfield back four and Marcus Dinanga also had a brilliant game, often displaying a high work rate as he continued to create chances and dictate tempo by commanding his forward line.