It is 10 minutes after full-time and the Pirelli Stadium is bouncing. In front of each stand, on an incessant loop, a player or staff member raises an arm to the crowd three times and is roundly cheered. On that third raise, the loudest noise. Nobody seems to tire of the repetition.
Late-season midweek matches, rearranged from a previous date, can often cause pathos to hang a little in the air. The warmth of the sun and the daylight that refuses to cede until half-time give the impression of August, when you were hungry and excited for the nine months that were coming. In April and May, they are a reminder that the domestic football void is coming.
Still, an evening at Burton Albion is the perfect cure for any ennui. For most of the last 20 minutes of the match, as night finally takes over, the West Terrace has been chanting a Bob Marley chorus as they see their team home: “Singing don’t worry, about a thing. Every little thing is gonna be alright”. Well, it is now.
Burton Albion 1-1 Wigan Athletic (Tuesday 29 April)
Game no: 89/92 Miles: 53 Cumulative miles: 17,233 Total goals seen: 231 The one thing I’ll remember in May: Burton’s academy team did a lap of the pitch at half-time after winning a final. They were given a massive standing ovation by the travelling Wigan fans, which seemed to make their day. It’s the little things that bring you joy.That remarkable rise, four promotions in 15 years from the Northern Premier League to the Championship, will forever be the Burton legacy: Nigel Clough as manager, Ben Robinson as owner and chairman. It – and they – platformed everything else. But 2024-25 might run it close. This has been one of the most remarkable league seasons in recent English football history, described by the club themselves as a miracle.
With four teams relegated from League One, Burton were 11 points plus goal difference from safety and had won twice in five months. Only four months of misery awaited them. On Tuesday, they secured their survival with a game to spare. That is why they are bouncing.
Some of the Robinson influence was retained: Ben’s daughter Fleur, who had been chief executive at Wrexham, moved to take on the same role at Burton. But everything changed in a summer like no other: new technical director (Bendik Hareide), new commercial director (Kevin Skabo), new chairman (Ole Jakob Valla Strandhagen), new deputy chairman (Tom Davidson). From May to August, Burton could not have looked more different.
Gary Bowyer has overseen a stunnin transformation during his four months in charge (Photo: Getty)
But the sheer rate of overhaul was unprecedented; NFG tried to pull most of this off over the course of a single summer. Burton set a new British record for the number of first-team players signed in a single transfer window, 23: one goalkeeper, four forwards, eight defenders, 10 midfielders. Fifteen of those 23 players were aged 24 or under. Eighteen players left on permanent deals or expired contracts and four more when out on loan. They effectively had a new squad.
At that point, Burton supporters are happy to admit, there were serious doubts about the ownership. Nobody was near the point of outright protest, but they believed that naivety had governed the course of their season and it would end in relegation and the lowest league position in a decade. For all the vision, the magic years would be over.
Bowyer has delivered an astonishing return on Burton’s leap of faith. He is a personable guy who relies upon a series of non-negotiable demands and looks to play the ball through midfield quickly to a centre forward or wingers. On Tuesday evening, Bowyer stands on the touchline in a black tracksuit and his glasses, throwing a bottle of water up in the air and catching it again when a pass goes astray or a wrong decision is made.
As Bowyer says, the players deserve immense credit for that too: they are young and it would have been easy to give up – even only subconsciously – in the same way supporters must have. Momentum works both ways and losing is a hard habit to break. Young players have become men here in 2025 and their careers will likely be far better for it.
square FOOTBALL Doing the 92I'm visiting all 92 football league clubs this season - and I need your help
Read More
If Bowyer has resurrected his reputation at Burton, the on-pitch saviour is an even more extraordinary tale. Last season, Rumarn Burrell was playing for Cove Rangers in Scotland’s third tier having left Falkirk after a single season. Burrell had been at Grimsby Town, Middlesbrough and Bradford City in English football without ever starting a senior league game.
And then something unexpected happened. On New Year’s Day, at home to Peterborough United, Burrell scored his first goal in English football. On 18 January, the day that marked Burton’s league table nadir, he scored again. Since Bowyer came in, Burrell has scored 11 league goals that have been worth 11 points to Burton. That gap on 18 January, as big as it got, was 11 points.
The change in this team is astonishing on every level. Since a pitiful home defeat to Northampton on 4 January, Burton lost six games and five of those were against some of League One’s richest: Birmingham, Bolton, Wrexham, Wycombe and Stockport. They finally climbed out of the bottom four on 12 April and have not been back there since. January became February, became March, became April. Desperation became dream, became hope, became joy.
They know that they got plenty wrong and concede that they are new arrivals to an environment where trying to run before you can walk normally leads to you falling over a few times first.
For a month or two, they can dwell upon one of the most ridiculous, and ridiculously good, half-seasons in the history of this club and of any club at their level. They would prefer it to be more settled next season, of course. But nobody is admitting that tonight.
Daniel Storey has set himself the goal of visiting all 92 grounds across the Premier League and EFL this season. You can follow his progress via our interactive map and find every article (so far) here
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( I went to Burton Albion to witness the completion of a miracle )
Also on site :