Doncaster Rovers 2-1 Burton Albion

Doncaster Rovers 2-1 Burton Albion

EFL Trophy

Tuesday 7th November 2023

The best thing about the EFL Trophy is the opportunities it gives to young players and this is a night which Ronny Wakelin and Dylan Scott will remember for years to come, as they made their professional debuts for Burton Albion.

Both are part of a very good Burton U18s team who currently sit top of the North-East Youth Alliance and are in a very good position to challenge for the title (either them or Grimsby will win it - and there’s not much between either), and they’re also through to the Second Round of the FA Youth Cup where they’ll be favourites against Chester-Le-Street United.

Dylan was top scorer in the Youth Alliance last season with roughly 30 league goals to his name, Ronny is a tough and tenacious midfielder who has been consistently impressive, both are proper down to earth and have good attitudes, both were on the bench in the Brewers’ FA Cup game at Port Vale on Saturday, and both came on as second half substitutes in this game wearing the No.38 and No.39 shirts, respectively, in a moment which will have made their families proud - plus Ronny’s good mate Jono Bland (captain of Barnsley’s U18s) who was hiding away just behind me in one of the exec boxes.

They aren’t the first young players to make their debut in this fixture in this competition because back in October 2014, Mitchell Lund and Billy Whitehouse were given their debuts for Doncaster, the following season Paul McKay featured in a 0-0 draw in September (all of this when the EFL Trophy was still in it’s old knockout format too) and on that memorable sunny final day of the 2015/16 when Burton celebrated promotion to the Championship and Donny went down to League Two, Will Longbottom also made his debut for Rovers.

So just a little bit of history repeating… but for lads in Burton shirts this time!

Another player who made his debut in this competition was Louis Jones and that was against another team beginning with the letter ‘B’ (Bradford - in the behind-closed-doors Covid era) and a late change to Donny’s starting line-up, meant his appearance in this game was his 50th for DRFC at first team level - and, to this day, he remains the only ‘keeper to have come from the academy and played in the first team since Rovers’ academy was reformed back in 2004. Not a bad accolade!

Louis Jones wasn’t far off celebrating this little landmark with a clean-sheet either because on a night when my presence stopped Rovers equaling their lowest ever crowd for a competitive game at the Keepmoat Stadium (1,068 last night; 1,067 vs Everton a few months ago), Rovers raced into a 2-0 lead which puts them in the next round and they had things wrapped up before Beryly Lubala’s curling late strike for the Brewers set up a nervy finish.

It wasn’t the most classic of games but Rovers were good value and deserved the win.

After Mo Faal got the opener in pretty much the first chance of any kind, Jack Goodman (starting - and someone else to have progressed from youth football to first team - and with a good scoring record too) should have doubled the lead before half-time when he got in-between the Brewers defence and ‘keeper Jamal Blackman who’d come charging out and had an open goal to aim at but couldn’t get his effort on target.

Jack Blackman atoned with a decent flying save from Kyle Hurst’s attempt which was heading straight for the top corner just after half-time before Rovers finally made it 2-0 when Hurst finished off a decent move with a sweeping finish from inside the penalty area.

At this point, step-forward Ronny Wakelin because when he entered the fray immediately after that second goal in a double change alongside Beryly Lubala, Burton seemed to wake up a bit and get their act together. Straight away he was pressing well and showing a willingness to work hard, get the ball and make something happen and although he found Row K with a long-range shot which got a few ironic cheers from the home end, soon afterwards Lubala showed him how it’s done with a sweeping finish to make it 2-1 with about 10 minutes to go.

With the game having kicked off 15 minutes late due to Burton being caught in traffic and in the knowledge that Mansfield had lost to Everton’s U21s, Rovers had the knowledge at this point that if they held on and achieved the win then they’d be through to Round Two and although Dylan Scott tried his utmost to make something happen once he’d come on for Cole Stockton, he couldn’t quite get a chance to show what he can do infront of goal as Rovers held out during the closing stages plus four extra minutes for injury-time.

Burton can still qualify for the next round for the next round as their game with Mansfield at the Pirelli Stadium in a couple of weeks will be a ‘Winner Takes It All’ affair (cue some Abba on the pre-match music no doubt) and hopefully Dylan and Ronny will be trusted to notch up another appearance in their early careers.

Well done on earning your debuts!