From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Louie Moulden: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match16 Sep 2026
Wigan Athletic go through and Burton Albion go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match19 Sep 2026
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and James Jones delivers — 7.44
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. James Jones scored, was marked 7.44, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Oumar Diouf was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Finn Delap misses from twelve yards
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ciaran Gilligan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Burton Albion, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Burton Albion's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Burton Albion has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Sep 2026
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Oumar Diouf in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Burton Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Oumar Diouf gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Burton Albion
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Burton Albion
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Burton Albion are no longer polite ones.
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a goal for Burton Albion
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Oumar Diouf was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Stevenage will be the happier side with the point.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jason Sraha knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Burton Albion, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A season on the outside for Oumar Diouf
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Burton Albion has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tyrese Shade in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Burton Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Burton Albion
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Wigan Athletic, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Charlie Webster has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 5.80, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Southampton for Tyrese Shade was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market24 Aug 2026
James Jones hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Burton Albion can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tyrese Shade was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ciaran Gilligan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from West Bromwich Albion for Charlie Webster was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tyrese Shade in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Burton Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Blackpool left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Burton Albion
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody is after Tyrese Shade’s shirt
A new face in his position, and Tyrese Shade suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Burton Albion have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Market17 Aug 2026
A season-long audition: Millwall still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Burton Albion's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Market17 Aug 2026
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Louie Moulden arrives from Norwich City with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Tyrese Shade has come up in conversations Burton Albion were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market10 Aug 2026
The shirt still fits. Ryan Broom is back at Burton Albion, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tyrese Shade in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Burton Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ryan Broom gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ryan Broom has just signed for Burton Albion, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Millar Matthews-Lewis and Burton Albion agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ciaran Gilligan, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tyrese Shade was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Julian Larsson commits to Burton Albion for another 4 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Burton Albion, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Burton Albion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jason Sraha is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Julian Larsson’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.