One Game at a Time
Burton Albion (A) November 19th
“Once more unto the breach, my friends once more
Or close up the back four with thine English walking wounded”
With apologies to W Shakespeare esq (a Worcester City fan I believe)
With well over a thousand greens thumbing their mobiles between plays at Lincoln, scrolling through the list of free agents that might make viable short-term options, the apparently threadbare cupboard of the Green Army still had enough reserves of resolve to take the lead (Randell making a late surge for the scoring charts with his third goal of the season), and despite a thorough working over, held on for a valuable point. For those Greens who see that as a disappointing outcome, it’s the same as the Wendies managed, and one more than Ipswich managed with home advantage against the same opposition.
With fixtures mercifully thinning out in the run up the Christmas and a slow trickle of familiar faces starting to appear on the bench, and in meaningless Papa Johns games (we hope), there is no sign of a Black Friday frenzy descending on the Home Park recruitment team just yet. Ironically, as a disappointing home draw with Cheltenham (cheers Agents Broom, Walton and Camara for respectively a goal, a muffed save and a clip against the post from inside the box), combined with a win for the Wendies at freefalling Stanley has the previously sanguine Blue Army scrabbling for a transfer surge after two long term casualties. Is anyone surprised that one of the few rivals for Morsy‘s spot in the team has succumbed to a season ending training ground injury? I thought not.
Champions elect Wednesday are now confident that they will be in the autos in the next week or so. Certainly, it is good to see our two pacesetting companions finally playing some teams from the top half of the table (apart from when they lost to us), although it is going to feel weird wanting the six toes to win games for us in the next couple of weeks.
Whilst our next games are Burton, Port Vale, Cambridge, Morecambe, and Cheltenham, which takes us to the halfway point Ipswich have trips to Exeter and Whycome, but entertain Fleetwood, Posh and a resurgent Tarby Army in Oxford.
The Wendies five cup finals include a trip to the Rams and the sixtoes, after being at home to Shrewsbury's brand of total football before they too play Oxford at home and Fleetwood away. Will they risk Bannan against the Shrews? One can only hope so.
Taking nothing for granted, it is hard to see us getting less points from the remaining fixtures than our rivals before the halfway marker comes into view and the downhill half of the season commences.
First things first though, and a trip to Burton where to use the most overused phrase relating to this brewing town, we shall want to avoid going for a Burton.
The only problem with this sentiment is that there is no direct evidence it relates in any way to Burton. My father, an RAF radio operator in the war claimed, and there are other people who have also posted this explanation, that “going for a Burton” belongs in fact to Blackpool.
The traditional version of the saying comes from the military and is a euphemism for having been killed in action. In effect the logic was that going for a Burton was like going for a drink and not returning. Burton being the centre of the brewing industry in the UK. The RAF with its arcane language also had a reference to the drink being where a lot of RAF crews met their ends when shot down.
The Blackpool connection was that when in training the radio operators would have a final exam which would be the determinant of them being fit for action, and said exam was held in a room above the local Burtons the Tailors shop. Hence the taking of the exam and failing was the source of “going for a Burton.”
In either case it is true to say that the one thing that does seem to go for a Burton in Burton are football teams. Burton Albion, themselves only formed in 1950 and who only elevated themselves to League status in 2009 are in fact the fourth team with Burton in their name to grace the football league in its various guises.
The first, Burton Swifts, were formed in 1871 and were founder members, if not especially successful ones, of the initial expansion of the League to two divisions. In this they were joined by Burton Wanderers, who were formed in the same year and who spent three seasons in the Second Division before being voted out, despite finishing second in 1897. Their abiding footprint in football history is that they to this day hold the record for defeating Newcastle United, beating them 9-0 in 1895. Both Capes brothers scored hat tricks for the Wanderers, and Adrian Capes got four, although one may have been ruled an own goal had the dubious goals panel existed way back when. What is more remarkable is that Burton started the game with only ten men and were a goal to the good when the eleventh man finally turned up! Suffice to say eight of the Newcastle XI never played for the club again.
The Wanderers team were soon out of the league and after a few unsuccessful seasons in the Midland league, in 1901 they combined with the Swifts to form Burton United, who then took over the Swifts league place. It seems the only swift thing about teams in Burton was their demise.
That form continued and in 1910 Burton United dropped out of the League. The club continued in amateur football, merging (of course they did) with Burton All Saints in 1924 and eventually changing their name to Burton Town. This version of Burton went for a …..in 1940 and never gained League status, although they did reach the FA Cup 1st round proper a couple of times and even the 3rd round, losing 4-0 to Blackburn Rovers in 1932.
Burton therefore is the English town with the most ever ex League clubs to have a league club. Which is an achievement of sorts. Town were eventually subsumed into Albion when they were created in 1950. Albion then continued its happy non-league existence for many years until the arrival of something other Midlands teams had experienced in the past. The Clough effect.
Before that however, a more significant impact was to be made by a local Insurance broker Ben Robinson, the Illegitimate son of an American GI who, brought up by his mother and step-father, rose from being a talented local player and butcher’s boy to eventually becoming Club Chairman. In two stints he now owns the club and at one point had the distinction of having only once fired a manager in 24 years in charge. He is up to two sackings now, the maniac.
It was he who also, having had the silky skills of Ian Storey-Moore as player manager decided to take a chance on a young player manager making a name for himself at Gainsborough Trinity. The appointment of a very young Neil Warnock was to prove a master stroke. A former Burton player, Warnock won silverware at Maine Road when Burton defeated Macclesfield to win The Northern Premier League Challenge Cup. He never, however, won the Northern League Championship the Brewers fans coveted.
The outspoken, even then, Warnock also took Burton to the third round of the cup in 1985 where they were controversially beaten six one by Leicester City, Lineker hat-trick and all, after a missile struck their goalkeeper. Ordered by the FA to replay the game behind closed doors, the non-leaguers finally succumbed, but this time by a single goal from Paul Ramsey at Highfield Road.
In 1998 came the appointment by a returned Robinson that was to shape the club for years to come. Cloughie was appointed as manager, but not the abrasive ex European Cup double winner Brian, but his son Nigel, together with ex Forest team-mate Gary Crosby. Again, the successful deployment of a player manager, Clough played almost a third of his games as a player for Burton, meant the team climbed up to the Conference. Finally in the 2008/9 season, despite the loss of Clough to his father’s old stomping ground of Derby County in January, the club attained league status, and Burton once again had a league club at the fourth time of asking.
Roy McFarland had steered the club to the League, but was replaced by Paul Peschisolido, the Canadian player possibly most famous for being sold by his soon to be wife Karen, now Baroness Brady, when at Birmingham City. His run as Burton manager was ended when Robinson called time after a winless run of 17 games 2012, and Gary Rowett took over. It was to be Peschisolido’s only managerial role. His greatest mistake may well have been declining the chance to sign a young non-league striker named Vardy.
Burton then had a series of play -off near misses as they tried to reach league 1, the one in 2013 at the hands of Antoni Sarcevic who scored a late Fleetwood winner. Rowett eventually left for Birmingham City, and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink arrived to complete the promotion journey to League One.
After a strong start to the 2015/16 season Hasselbaink departed for QPR, to be replaced by the returning Clough. The season ended with a remarkable promotion, where Albion had to win at Doncaster, as Walsall overcame a five goal deficit in goal difference on the day in their match. They did and after only seven short seasons in the League Burton had a Championship club. Briefly.
Two seasons later they were back in League 1, and during the Covid affected season Clough stepped back, in a move believed to have saved a number of jobs at the club by eliminating his wage. After a short-lived period under Jake Buxton, Robinsons second dismissal as a manager, and a caretaker, it was Hasselbaink who returned. This time was to prove more of a struggle, and earlier this season after a poor start, the Dutchman walked away, to be replaced by Dino Maamria.
In his short time in charge, and bolstered by the free agent market, Burton under Maamria have undoubtedly improved as an attacking force although are still prone to letting a few in to sabotage their goal scoring. The latest arrival is ex Donny forward Joe Dodoo. Let’s hope that if he plays he does so as well as he sounds.
Burton the place is famous for brewing obviously, but is also the home of Marmite, and the nearby village of Branston was the source of the world famous pickle, created by the ancestors of Argyle (and many other clubs) legend, Guy.*
The town also was the birthplace of Admiral John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, a contemporary of Nelson (Horatio, not Curtis), whose name was writ large in the annals of British naval warfare long before his descendent Jake disappeared into the embrace of the Devonport End on another memorable Battle of the Ports in 2016.**
So let us hope this Saturday we can raise a glass to a win for the lads of the Golden ’ind, rather than the Ind Coope bottlers of Burton.
Cheers and COYG!
*Made this one up I am afraid, he’s not related.
**And this. Imagine what the April Fools OGAAT is going to be like
Burton Albion (A) November 19th
“Once more unto the breach, my friends once more
Or close up the back four with thine English walking wounded”
With apologies to W Shakespeare esq (a Worcester City fan I believe)
With well over a thousand greens thumbing their mobiles between plays at Lincoln, scrolling through the list of free agents that might make viable short-term options, the apparently threadbare cupboard of the Green Army still had enough reserves of resolve to take the lead (Randell making a late surge for the scoring charts with his third goal of the season), and despite a thorough working over, held on for a valuable point. For those Greens who see that as a disappointing outcome, it’s the same as the Wendies managed, and one more than Ipswich managed with home advantage against the same opposition.
With fixtures mercifully thinning out in the run up the Christmas and a slow trickle of familiar faces starting to appear on the bench, and in meaningless Papa Johns games (we hope), there is no sign of a Black Friday frenzy descending on the Home Park recruitment team just yet. Ironically, as a disappointing home draw with Cheltenham (cheers Agents Broom, Walton and Camara for respectively a goal, a muffed save and a clip against the post from inside the box), combined with a win for the Wendies at freefalling Stanley has the previously sanguine Blue Army scrabbling for a transfer surge after two long term casualties. Is anyone surprised that one of the few rivals for Morsy‘s spot in the team has succumbed to a season ending training ground injury? I thought not.
Champions elect Wednesday are now confident that they will be in the autos in the next week or so. Certainly, it is good to see our two pacesetting companions finally playing some teams from the top half of the table (apart from when they lost to us), although it is going to feel weird wanting the six toes to win games for us in the next couple of weeks.
Whilst our next games are Burton, Port Vale, Cambridge, Morecambe, and Cheltenham, which takes us to the halfway point Ipswich have trips to Exeter and Whycome, but entertain Fleetwood, Posh and a resurgent Tarby Army in Oxford.
The Wendies five cup finals include a trip to the Rams and the sixtoes, after being at home to Shrewsbury's brand of total football before they too play Oxford at home and Fleetwood away. Will they risk Bannan against the Shrews? One can only hope so.
Taking nothing for granted, it is hard to see us getting less points from the remaining fixtures than our rivals before the halfway marker comes into view and the downhill half of the season commences.
First things first though, and a trip to Burton where to use the most overused phrase relating to this brewing town, we shall want to avoid going for a Burton.
The only problem with this sentiment is that there is no direct evidence it relates in any way to Burton. My father, an RAF radio operator in the war claimed, and there are other people who have also posted this explanation, that “going for a Burton” belongs in fact to Blackpool.
The traditional version of the saying comes from the military and is a euphemism for having been killed in action. In effect the logic was that going for a Burton was like going for a drink and not returning. Burton being the centre of the brewing industry in the UK. The RAF with its arcane language also had a reference to the drink being where a lot of RAF crews met their ends when shot down.
The Blackpool connection was that when in training the radio operators would have a final exam which would be the determinant of them being fit for action, and said exam was held in a room above the local Burtons the Tailors shop. Hence the taking of the exam and failing was the source of “going for a Burton.”
In either case it is true to say that the one thing that does seem to go for a Burton in Burton are football teams. Burton Albion, themselves only formed in 1950 and who only elevated themselves to League status in 2009 are in fact the fourth team with Burton in their name to grace the football league in its various guises.
The first, Burton Swifts, were formed in 1871 and were founder members, if not especially successful ones, of the initial expansion of the League to two divisions. In this they were joined by Burton Wanderers, who were formed in the same year and who spent three seasons in the Second Division before being voted out, despite finishing second in 1897. Their abiding footprint in football history is that they to this day hold the record for defeating Newcastle United, beating them 9-0 in 1895. Both Capes brothers scored hat tricks for the Wanderers, and Adrian Capes got four, although one may have been ruled an own goal had the dubious goals panel existed way back when. What is more remarkable is that Burton started the game with only ten men and were a goal to the good when the eleventh man finally turned up! Suffice to say eight of the Newcastle XI never played for the club again.
The Wanderers team were soon out of the league and after a few unsuccessful seasons in the Midland league, in 1901 they combined with the Swifts to form Burton United, who then took over the Swifts league place. It seems the only swift thing about teams in Burton was their demise.
That form continued and in 1910 Burton United dropped out of the League. The club continued in amateur football, merging (of course they did) with Burton All Saints in 1924 and eventually changing their name to Burton Town. This version of Burton went for a …..in 1940 and never gained League status, although they did reach the FA Cup 1st round proper a couple of times and even the 3rd round, losing 4-0 to Blackburn Rovers in 1932.
Burton therefore is the English town with the most ever ex League clubs to have a league club. Which is an achievement of sorts. Town were eventually subsumed into Albion when they were created in 1950. Albion then continued its happy non-league existence for many years until the arrival of something other Midlands teams had experienced in the past. The Clough effect.
Before that however, a more significant impact was to be made by a local Insurance broker Ben Robinson, the Illegitimate son of an American GI who, brought up by his mother and step-father, rose from being a talented local player and butcher’s boy to eventually becoming Club Chairman. In two stints he now owns the club and at one point had the distinction of having only once fired a manager in 24 years in charge. He is up to two sackings now, the maniac.
It was he who also, having had the silky skills of Ian Storey-Moore as player manager decided to take a chance on a young player manager making a name for himself at Gainsborough Trinity. The appointment of a very young Neil Warnock was to prove a master stroke. A former Burton player, Warnock won silverware at Maine Road when Burton defeated Macclesfield to win The Northern Premier League Challenge Cup. He never, however, won the Northern League Championship the Brewers fans coveted.
The outspoken, even then, Warnock also took Burton to the third round of the cup in 1985 where they were controversially beaten six one by Leicester City, Lineker hat-trick and all, after a missile struck their goalkeeper. Ordered by the FA to replay the game behind closed doors, the non-leaguers finally succumbed, but this time by a single goal from Paul Ramsey at Highfield Road.
In 1998 came the appointment by a returned Robinson that was to shape the club for years to come. Cloughie was appointed as manager, but not the abrasive ex European Cup double winner Brian, but his son Nigel, together with ex Forest team-mate Gary Crosby. Again, the successful deployment of a player manager, Clough played almost a third of his games as a player for Burton, meant the team climbed up to the Conference. Finally in the 2008/9 season, despite the loss of Clough to his father’s old stomping ground of Derby County in January, the club attained league status, and Burton once again had a league club at the fourth time of asking.
Roy McFarland had steered the club to the League, but was replaced by Paul Peschisolido, the Canadian player possibly most famous for being sold by his soon to be wife Karen, now Baroness Brady, when at Birmingham City. His run as Burton manager was ended when Robinson called time after a winless run of 17 games 2012, and Gary Rowett took over. It was to be Peschisolido’s only managerial role. His greatest mistake may well have been declining the chance to sign a young non-league striker named Vardy.
Burton then had a series of play -off near misses as they tried to reach league 1, the one in 2013 at the hands of Antoni Sarcevic who scored a late Fleetwood winner. Rowett eventually left for Birmingham City, and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink arrived to complete the promotion journey to League One.
After a strong start to the 2015/16 season Hasselbaink departed for QPR, to be replaced by the returning Clough. The season ended with a remarkable promotion, where Albion had to win at Doncaster, as Walsall overcame a five goal deficit in goal difference on the day in their match. They did and after only seven short seasons in the League Burton had a Championship club. Briefly.
Two seasons later they were back in League 1, and during the Covid affected season Clough stepped back, in a move believed to have saved a number of jobs at the club by eliminating his wage. After a short-lived period under Jake Buxton, Robinsons second dismissal as a manager, and a caretaker, it was Hasselbaink who returned. This time was to prove more of a struggle, and earlier this season after a poor start, the Dutchman walked away, to be replaced by Dino Maamria.
In his short time in charge, and bolstered by the free agent market, Burton under Maamria have undoubtedly improved as an attacking force although are still prone to letting a few in to sabotage their goal scoring. The latest arrival is ex Donny forward Joe Dodoo. Let’s hope that if he plays he does so as well as he sounds.
Burton the place is famous for brewing obviously, but is also the home of Marmite, and the nearby village of Branston was the source of the world famous pickle, created by the ancestors of Argyle (and many other clubs) legend, Guy.*
The town also was the birthplace of Admiral John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, a contemporary of Nelson (Horatio, not Curtis), whose name was writ large in the annals of British naval warfare long before his descendent Jake disappeared into the embrace of the Devonport End on another memorable Battle of the Ports in 2016.**
So let us hope this Saturday we can raise a glass to a win for the lads of the Golden ’ind, rather than the Ind Coope bottlers of Burton.
Cheers and COYG!
*Made this one up I am afraid, he’s not related.
**And this. Imagine what the April Fools OGAAT is going to be like
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