Written By Max
Ground #29
Pirelli Stadium – Burton Albion
Saturday 1st January 2022 – League One
Burton Albion 4-1 Crewe Alexandra
Attendance: 3,119
Entry: £17 (standing)
Burton Albion were founded back in 1950 and have spent the majority of their history in non-league. That was until 2008 when under Nigel Clough they were promoted to the football league for the first time. Since then the club have gone from strength to strength and even spent 2 years in the Championship recently.
They have played at their current ground since 2005 when they moved from their old ground which was across the road. The Pirelli Stadium is located on the former Pirelli tyres social club and they were given the land as long as they named it after the company.
Today’s game saw the Brewers come up against struggling Crewe Alexandra and we were joined at today’s game by my Dad who was taking in his first Crewe game of the season. We went into the game in a positive mood though as in the previous game the Alex had won their first away game for 242 days as we came away with 3 points from Morecambe. As well as the fact we had beaten Burton earlier in the season we went into the game thinking the new year could kick start our season.
That positivity was soon decimated though as after just 6 minutes Burton forward Harry Chapman took the ball from the halfway line and beat a hopeless Crewe defence to give the hosts the lead. Then from nothing Crewe midfielder Tom Lowery let fly from around 25 yards and as it hit the back of the net the scores were level.
Once again though the positivity was quickly eroded away as 2 more defensive mistakes meant the Brewers went into half time 3-1 up.
The second half continued in a similar vain. Crewe had plenty of possession but really struggled to create any meaningful chances. The hosts put the cherry on the top of their impressive performance with a 4th goal in added time to lump more misery on the deflated Crewe supporters. A bump back down to earth after a positive result the previous week and a reminder of just how much we need to improve if we are going to have any chance of staying up this season.
On the other hand, Burton continue to defy the odds for a club their size and if they continue to play like they did in today’s game they will continue to look up rather than down this season.
Now to rate our experience at the Pirelli Stadium:
Location: 6/10
The Pirelli Stadium is located on the main road through Burton on the edge of an industrial estate. It is around a 30 minute walk from the train station and has an away pub called The Beech Hotel just a 5 minute walk away.
Kit: 7/10
As mentioned on previous blogs we are both fans of a yellow kit. This is no exception. A very smart kit with a black stripe down one side. The sponsor also fits in well.
Thanks to official Crewe Alex photographer Kevin Warburton for allowing us to use his photos of the Burton kit as I completely forgot to take any myself!
Facilities: 5/10
The away terrace at the Pirelli Stadium contains a small inside bar under the stand. It is about as basic as you could possibly get with no decoration at all, but we were surprised by the fact there was an indoor bar under such a small stand. Outside there was a small hatch serving food and drink aswell as plenty of space to mingle before the match and at half time.
Look: 5/10
The Pirelli Stadium is a smart, modern little ground holding just under 7,000 fans. All 4 stands are a similar size with only the main stand containing seats. The other 3 stands, including the away stand are standing only with good steep terracing allowing a decent view to be had from any level. All 3 of us enjoyed the fact the away end was a standing terrace which you don’t see enough of at football league level.
As much as we both liked the look of the ground and thought it was the perfect size for a club the size of Burton, we have to compare it with the league the club find themselves in. When you are comparing it to other grounds we have visited such as Rotherham and Charlton we had to agree that we couldn’t really go any higher than a 5!
Food and Drink: 6/10
After the horror show at AFC Wimbledon we decided to risk another football league burger. Luckily for us this was a vast improvement and we both enjoyed it. It could though, have done with some onions and the cheese could have been more melted. Still though it was a decent effort. My Dad went for a steak pie which he said was nice but the usual Pukka Pie found at pretty much every football league ground.
In the bar there was a limited amount of beer on offer and NO DARK FRUITS! We instead all went for a pint of the locally, Burton brewed, Carling!
TOTAL SCORE 29/50
Another terrible Crewe performance which leaves us with 1 point from the 5 games we have seen them in this season! An enjoyable day nonetheless and it was good to get to a game with my Dad for the first time this season and to start the new year with a new blog!
We hope 2022 can continue in this way and we can get our first full year of football in with no interruptions since this blog began!
If you would like to see where this places The Brewers in our Football League leader board click here: THE 92
If you’d like the non-league grounds we have visited click here: NON LEAGUE
Emma’s Ground Guide 