BURTON Albion Professional Development Phase Lead Coach Sam Rose described the Young Brewers’ performance as “outstanding” after they came from behind to beat Huddersfield Town 2-1 at St George’s Park.
Striker Callum Niven netted an impressive brace as Albion returned to winning ways in the EFL Youth Alliance with a victory which was more convincing than the final scoreline suggested.
Speaking not long after the match had finished, Rose was understandably very keen to praise the Young Brewers’ efforts.
He said: “After the disappointment of last week [a 4-0 defeat to Lincoln], I thought we were outstanding today. The most pleasing thing for me was the effort the boys showed throughout to win the ball back when we lost it and we were always looking to play on the front foot.
“11 players working together as a unit is always the aim – we don’t always get it but that’s what we look for from the lads each week. When it happens, you’ve got every chance of winning games, as we saw here.
“It was frustrating to concede the first goal but we responded well and were really pleased to equalise, and I thought we then dominated the second half.
“We only won it [the second half] one-nil and probably should’ve scored a couple more goals to make the scoreline a little bit more comfortable, but on the whole we were really happy with it.”
Rose also admitted that he was impressed by how Burton played with the ball as well as without it and thought that a formation change proved key to their triumph.
“Our philosophy is to always try to play football,” he added. “We’re always encouraging the boys to be purposeful with the ball and to play through the pitch and I felt we did that well today.
“We don’t always get that sort of performance for whatever reason, but I thought playing with a back three suited us and set the game up nicely.
“They [Huddersfield] didn’t really get close to us when we were playing out from the back, so that allowed us to settle down on the ball and it was therefore more difficult for them to regain possession.”
The Young Brewers are set to round off the calendar year with an away fixture against Harrogate Town on December 18th, with Rose feeling intrigued ahead of the visit to North Yorkshire.
He stated: “It’ll be interesting because it’s a fairly long trip up there so we need to make sure that the lads do it properly.
“As coaches we always take something away from trips like the one to Harrogate because they give us an idea of how the players might travel if they were ever to go and play in the senior team.
“At senior level – whether that’s here or somewhere else – they need to be able to prepare right and travel right no matter how far away it is. Hopefully we can finish the year on a high by getting a good result there.”
WORDS: George Wilson
PICTURES: Sally Rose