Ahead of our game at Burton, we spoke to Colston Crawford from the Derby Telegraph to preview the fixture. Here’s what Colston had to say.
Burton fans would admit that they had a pretty disappointing season last time out, and looked like relegation candidates for the majority of the season. What went wrong considering how resolute the side usually is?
What went wrong initially was a combination of things. Nigel Clough standing down and Jake Buxton taking his first management job in the midst of the pandemic did not make things easy for him. There were a couple of early injuries and some poor results and things just sort of snowballed. It was hard on Jake, a good man. In the end, they only looked relegation candidates for half of the season. Once Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink walked back through the door, things changed very sharply.
With Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink performing extremely well at the back end of the season, can he build on the momentum and challenge for the top half of the table this season?
We think so. Hasselbaink has momentum, his assistant Dino Maamria fits well with him and is very good at connecting with fans, who feel they are very much part of things again. People looking from the outside tend to think Hasselbaink is a "flair" manager, because of his playing style. He isn't. Organisation and a solid defence come first. He routinely plays two holding midfielders in front of a back four. But players will run through brick walls for him and will keep doing so if it keeps getting results.
Who’s been your marquee signing over the summer?
I would have said Louis Moult, a proven goal-getter, but Louis has been incredibly unlucky with injury in his career and is out for five months with an ankle ligament injury picked up in the pre-season friendly against Leicester. There are no big shots in a Hasselbaink team though, it's all about the sum of the parts.
Has anyone important departed from the Pirelli Stadium?
The big departure was Ryan Edwards, the Australian midfielder whose work rate and popularity were second to none. But we like the look of the replacements in midfield.
Which Sunderland player worries you most as a Burton fan?
McGeady is the obvious answer, with proven quality with assists and goals in him.
And finally, what will be the score when the two sides play, and who will score?
We hope we're catching you early, before you've gelled. We had the majority of the squad in place early so we hope we're ahead of some in that way. I don't normally do score predictions but I'll go for 2-1 Burton and say that one scorer will be full-back Tom Hamer... he will reach double figures this season.
