NIGEL Clough was delighted to have an experienced goalkeeper to step into the breach on Saturday after Kieran O’Hara was forced off with an ankle injury just before the interval.
Ben Garratt came on to make his Brewers league debut and was immediately into the action pulling off the first of several top drawer saves against Ipswich.
With rain and high winds making it a tricky day for goalkeepers at Portman Road, the Brewers manager was pleased to have an experienced stopper on the bench with Garratt having made more than 200 league appearances for his former club Crewe.
Clough said: “Ben came on and did very well making a few brilliant saves. He’s a good, confident, experienced goalkeeper and we saw that in that 45 minutes.
“We saw his experience straight away and how he stood up and said to the strikers ‘you have to beat me’ and they hit him two or three times.”
Garratt will be in line for his first league start of the season as the Brewers travel to Southend on Saturday if O’Hara fails to recover from injury.
The Brewers also lost Richard Nartey at Ipswich to add to a growing problem at centre back with John-Joe O’Toole and Jake Buxton already struggling.
Clough said: “It is difficult and we ended up with two midfielders at centre half with Kieran Wallace and Conor Shaughnessy on Saturday against a very potent strike force.”
Their task was made more difficult by the conditions.
Clough said: “It wasn't easy but both teams tried to get it down and play and it was very entertaining game in the circumstances."
The Brewers went down 4-1 at Ipswich who are now back on track for a promotion push as the big clubs start to dominate League One as the season moves on.
Clough said: “The league is incredibly strong. When we go promoted a few years ago the closest team who nearly pipped us was Walsall, who are now halfway down League Two. There was no Sunderland and Ipswich and clubs that are big and very strong, which starts to show at this time of the year with their depth of squads.”