Brewers end barren run to sip sweet taste of victory

Ryan Sweeney is in his second season with Burton

"It's about time".

Burton Albion defender Ryan Sweeney could not have been more to the point when asked about finally having a "pleasant Saturday night" to look forward to after beating Shrewsbury Town for their first League One win of the season.

Victory came in their 14th attempt and after three months of trying.

"It will be nice going home and being able to enjoy it," he told BBC Radio Derby.

"It’s a really good feeling. We've had a lot of disappointment in the season and it was becoming a thing at the end of the game, walking in so disappointed even when we deserved points.

"That was a real good feeling to walk in with three points and the clean sheet."

Victory against fellow third-tier strugglers Shrewsbury was enough to also lift the Brewers off the bottom of the table and above Salop.

Not only did the three points end a miserable winless start to the season for Burton, it was also a milestone first league triumph for the club since its summer takeover by the Sweden-based Nordic Football Group.

The new owners overhauled a Burton side that had battled to avoid relegation in the past two seasons, making a British record 23 signing in a single transfer window while moving 24 off their books.

Overseeing the win was Tom Hounsell, who was put in charge on an interim basis after Mark Robinson - the head coach hand-picked by the new owners to oversee the on-pitch reinvention of Burton - was sacked 11 league games into the season.

"To get that is just a massive well done to everyone involved," said Hounsell.

"That feeling they got at the end, they have deserved that sooner than what it has come. I'm just happy we were able to do that today."

Goals from Tomas Kalinauskas and Danilo Orsi - two of the record number of summer recruits - sealed victory for the Brewers to complete an unbeaten week in fine style.

Sweeney, one of the few players who was kept at the club after last season's narrow relegation escape, said the point earned against Crawley in midweek, after edging past non-league side Scarborough Athletic in the first round of the FA Cup, was vital.

"That was still a big point in terms of breaking the trend from losing the last seven [league] games," he said.

"You have to start from somewhere, and even though it wasn’t the win we so desperately wanted, it definitely gave us a platform."