Three first-half goals were enough for Burton Albion to beat Crewe Alexandra in the opening group game of this season’s EFL Trophy at the Alexandra Stadium last night, despite a late goal from midfielder Paul Green.
Manager David Artell made 8 changes from Saturday’s 2-1 home win against Bradford City where only Perry Ng, Eddie Nolan and Charlie Kirk kept their places in the side with Dave Richards, Nicky Hunt, Rio Adebisi, Callum Ainley, Ollie Finney, James Jones, Owen Dale and Chuma Anene all coming into the side. On the bench were goalkeeper Sam Booth, Billy Sass-Davies and 5 players who dropped out of the team, Harry Pickering, Ryan Wintle, Daniel Powell, Green and Tom Lowery.
The first goal came on 13 minutes with Jones losing out to Stephen Quinn with the midfielder scoring from just outside the area before they added a second midway through the half with Scott Fraser chipping the ball over Richards and the Brewers added a third in first-half stoppage time as Lucas Akins scored from just inside the area into the bottom corner.
After a triple-change at the break which saw a complete change of midfield (Jones, Ainley and Finney replaced by Green, Wintle and Pickering), it was the experienced Green who got the Alex on the scoresheet turning in a low Adebisi cross but it wasn’t enough to get anything out of the game.
We are back in league action on Saturday with a trip to Grimsby Town before a home game against Cambridge United the following Saturday.
What can we learn from this game?
Not a great deal apart from having a team with players that haven’t played for the first team much all in the same starting 11 isn’t great as most won’t be sharp. That said, I’d have taken off Perry, Nolan and Kirk seeing as both defenders have played every minute of the season so far while Kirky isn’t far off doing the same.
Alexandra Stadium
EFL Trophy
3/09/2019 8:30 pm
Attendance: 917
Referee: Anthony Backhouse
| Crewe Alexandra | Burton Albion | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green | Quinn, Fraser, Akins | ||||||
| Richards | O'Hara | ||||||
| Ng | Brayford | 84 | |||||
| Hunt | O'Toole | ||||||
| Nolan | Wallace | ||||||
| Adebisi | Hutchinson | ||||||
| Jones | 46 | Edwards | |||||
| Finney | 46 | Quinn | |||||
| Ainley | 46 | Fraser | 90 | ||||
| Dale | Sbarra | ||||||
| Anene | Akins | ||||||
| Kirk | Templeton | 70 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Booth | Bywater | ||||||
| Pickering | 46 | Sarkic | 70 | ||||
| Wintle | 46 | Anderson | 84 | ||||
| Powell | Beardsley | 90 | |||||
| Green | 46 | Livesey | |||||
| Lowery | |||||||
| Sass-Davies | |||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 13 | Goal attempts | 17 |
| 5 | On Target | 7 |
| 6 | Corners | 5 |
| 10 | Fouls | 11 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 45 | % | 55 |