Burton 2-4 U’s: Goal, Darling. Thanks, Babe.

A much changed United side progressed to the knockout phase of the EFL Trophy with a 4-2 win at Burton.

Bonner made a number of changes to the side that lost at Exeter, with Callum Burton, Harry Darling, Leon Davies, Jack Iredale, Idris El Mizouni, Tom Knowles and Harvey Knibbs all starting. For once, the U’s didn’t start brightly, as Burton rushed to a 2-0 lead before the game was even five minutes old.

The comeback began with Harvey Knibbs grabbing a real poachers effort before Luke Hannant lobbed the keeper from forty yards. A Harry Darling header in the second half put the U’s in front before Hannant got his second of the game thanks to some nice work from Joe Ironside.

We don’t like to give this farce of a competition too much attention, and it’s hard to read too much into performances when both teams put out second-choice teams, but a win’s a win and we can be grateful for the prize money this ‘trophy’ brings. Our next game is an engineered ‘top of the table’ clash with local rivals P*sh, but as much as it’s always nice to beat Fat Baz and his crooked lot from up the A1, it really doesn’t matter one jot if we finish first or second in the group stage.

Attention now turns to Saturday’s home game against Newport, where Darling and Knibbs will surely be expecting to start.

United: Burton, Davies, Darling, Taylor, Iredale, Hannant, Digby, El Mizouni (May), Knowles (Dunk), Ironside, Knibbs