The second half was a mirror-image of the first in many ways. It was Burton who came out looking hungry, really neat in possession and playing some nice passing patterns. It wasn’t quite possession without a purpose, they edged into our half plenty, but they couldn’t find that killer pass, that key moment that could have restored parity. The 3,392 strong crowd, almost a third of which were Imps, did sound louder at times, but that’s the proximity of the stands to the ground. I like Burton as a ground, after trips to Reading, Bolton and Birmingham, it does feel more natural, more authentic, even if the low crowd is unusual for our matches these days.
They sought to try and ignite the 2,300 home supporters one way or another, but it just didn’t happen. Revan burst into the box, an effort blocked bravely by Conor McGrandles. That was typical – if the defenders don’t get the block, it’s a midfielder instead. There is a ‘one for all’ attitude right now that we maybe didn’t feel at Christmas time. We let so many silly goals in last season, but this campaign, we’re keeping things nice and tight. Five clean sheets in 11 matches against all opposition speaks volumes, especially when you consider two of the other games we had clean sheets until we went down to ten men.
As the game wore on, it opened up a little, again, game state being important. Burton had to start taking risks and as a result, they began to make mistakes. Our passing wasn’t perfect – 72.4%, whereas theirs was better, 83.1%. Still, in the final half hour, it got much scrappier in terms of quality. Our accuracy dropped to 67.07%, theirs to 79.33%. The crucial stat here is passes to the final third – both hovered around 57%. So, while there was a drop off across the whole game, those passes that matter saw us match the opposition.
Okoronkwo had a good chance as the game wore on, picking up a lovely through ball but firing just wide. James Collins, who fed on scraps for much of the game, was screaming for the pass but didn’t get it. Those watching at home probably thought ‘another good chance’ and again, those in the stand would have seen the offside flag go up and deny us another slice of xG.
There were late chances, opportunities for us that should have put the game beyond doubt. We might have lost two big chunks of xG to offside, but Freddie will be gutted not to have killed the game off. Curiously, Burton tried to play out from the back with ten minutes to go, and the irrepressible Ben House pressed Chauke high, winning the ball. Fred collects, one-on-one with a whole goal to shoot at. Agonisingly, it struck the post and came back out when very few inside the ground imagined any outcome other than a goal.
Despite the late pressure, we looked most likely to steal a second goal in my opinion. They had possession, but the game opened more and we had a couple of decent chances. The heavens opened in the September sunshine, placing a rainbow over the away support and creating a nice wet-look to the red and white stripes. We couldn’t add shine to the score, despite Sonny Bradley having an almost exact replica of his goal served up by Reach. Sadly, he couldn’t direct his header at goal.
Justin Obikwu had a late chance as well, a run on the break. His cameo was interesting, he certainly has an attribute set that you can see working in our current set up. He had a decent opportunity prior to his shot, but was charged off the ball in the area, fairly, I think. The ref had waved away a similar charge by Ben House at the other end, so no complaints on Obikwu for me. His shot wasn’t really one to test the keeper, and a player who has been with us three months, not three days, might have chosen to run the clock down a little.
With six minutes added time, City held firm to claim the win, aided by a moment of stupidity late on. I do like Webster, and if it ever came to pass that we signed him, I’d be delighted, but his late challenge of Ivan Varfolomeev was not pretty at all. At the time, I couldn’t see a lot wrong with it, but on the replay he goes over the ball, maybe an element of frustration.
It’s ironic that, once again, we picked up the most bookings and in fairness, all looked justified, but in reality, the only truly bad tackle of the game was something we were on the end of. Having seen awful tackles in matches against Harrogate and Wigan, as well as Burton, you’d think it was the opposition who were aggressive, not us.
Afterwards, Michael Skubala gave Webster the benefit of the doubt and said he knew him from his youth days. Let’s hope that’s a link we explore in due course!
Ultimately, we came away with a win against a side who are still probably in a slightly false position. They’re a bottom ten side, yes, but bottom four? I’m not so sure. They build nicely, and with JJ McKiernan in there as well, I think the home fans will have lots of nice football to watch over the coming weeks. Will Jake Beesley and Tyrese Shade get on the end of anything they create? I’m not so sure.
As for us, it’s a win in (and I quote my Dad) ‘the sort of game we should be winning’. It’s another good start for us as well. After eight matches in 2022/23 (Kennedy’s first full season) we had ten points, in 2023/24 we had 12 points from eight matches. Under Michael Skubala, nobody can deny the quality of our starts, with 15 points from eight matches in 2024/25 and now in 2025/26.
It’s what comes next that will be the real test. Autumn. The usual seasonal drop off. Do we have the squad to cope with injuries and loss of form? To keep the same pace as last season, we need 11 points from the next eight matches against Luton, Bradford, Exeter, Stevenage, Orient, Rotherham, Doncaster and Wycombe. Achieve that, and who knows what the winter might bring as Skubala 2.0 fully kicks in.