BURTON Albion Professional Development Phase Lead Coach Sam Rose reflected on a hard fought 2-1 win against Doncaster in the EFL Youth Alliance League at St George’s Park.
The away side took the lead, but the Young Brewers turned the game around with goals from Max Raine and Callum Niven, to give Albion all three points.
Speaking after the game, Rose stated: “I didn’t think we were very good today, but it’s good to still win the game. Some okay football in the first half but I didn’t think we moved the ball well enough or particularly quick enough, which always gives the opposition a chance if they are on the front foot.
"If you are moving slow, you are always playing into one vs ones and you never really create an overload, so that was frustrating.
“But I think we may have just deserved to win it based on the chances created by both teams, but it sets us up going into the game on Tuesday, we’ll be confident.
“Callum scored a goal today - he’s our centre forward and he’s not scored for a couple of games, so he’ll be raring to go again, and everyone’s hopefully come through it OK so we’ll be able to pick our strongest team on Tuesday.”
It wasn’t the easiest game from the Young Brewers, who had to change shape multiple times to deal with the Doncaster threat, and Rose was pleased with how Albion grinded out the result.
“We generally play with a three because we want to get the ball out from the back and create overloads, switch play, we want to play with the front five if we can and that shape allows you to do that.
“It felt like we needed to make a change, so we went to 4-3-3 and finally finished with a 4-4-2. I think if you’re not particularly playing well and you’re not having to score a goal to win the game, we were winning 2-1 so we tried to keep our shape off the ball and make it difficult for the opposition.
“We won the second half 1-0, some good defending from one of the young lads Toby Oakes, he made some really important blocks, and some good saves from Dan Moore in goal so that’s positive as well, the lads that have had to defend their goal have done that, and that’s meant that we’ve won the game.
“It was a frustrating game to watch, but I’m pleased we won.”