Despite the absence of nearly fifty percent of their regular team the Burton players involved in this game showed true commitment and Club pride as the youngsters and other promoted squad members did their reputations and standing within the club no harm at all as they battled back from a disastrous early start to finish the game only three points adrift of the local rivals Lichfield in this first round County Cup defeat at Cookes Field on Saturday afternoon.

From the kick-off Burton faced the very bright sun and unfortunately were soon chasing shadows, as poor defence, not helped by all the changes in their ranks, opened up gaps which Lichfield’s Greg Massey soon capitalised upon, scoring two tries in the first three minutes. Two successful conversions had Burton staring down the barrel at fourteen points down with only minutes of the game gone. The first Burton attack of the game yielded a penalty, which Darryl Banton chipped over to get the score board moving for Burton as they pegged back three points.

But Massey hit back as Burton again dropped off tackles and he raced over to touchdown for his third try of the day after a just frantic twelve minutes of action that left Burton reeling, however the missed conversion left the score 19-3.

After this initial torrent of points the scoring settled down as the game surged between the both twenty- two meter lines, before Ian Gilmour intercepted and ran thirty meters before being stopped short of the line. But quickly in support the Burton forwards recycled the ball and Sam Smith darted over to score in the corner. Once again Banton made an excellent conversion for the ball to bisect the uprights and in the circumstances Burton were very happy with a 19-10 score-line.

Things got better for Burton when Lichfield’s kick off did not make ten metres and Burton were awarded a penalty at the ensuing scrummage and the 10 meters for dissent, gave Banton another attempt at goal and he made no mistake to take the score line to 19-13.

Not long afterwards Lichfield missed a fairly easy penalty attempt and Ken Archer gathered the ball and bundled his way back over the twenty two to relieve the pressure. Luke Peach and Danny Smith put in great tackles to halt the next wave of Lichfield attacks and Peach was soon kicking a penalty deep into the opponents half. Then Jason Knight tidied up a messy line-out before a penalty was awarded to Burton, however they did not profit as the kick slipped wide. Burton were now dominating territory and using an effective driving maul despite being under the cosh at scrum-time. A great tackle from Lichfield stopped what seemed a certain try from Burton, but a score did come on the stroke of half time. Gilmour ripped the ball out of a maul and Jon Parkinson and Archer took the ball close to line before drives from Simon Bradley and then Nathan Taylor brought a try, a conversion for Banton and somewhat surprisingly, after such a dismal start, a 20-19 lead for Burton.

Burton started the second half with real intent as Archer, Parkinson and then Jono Edwards carried the ball hard and made plenty of ground. However, it was the home side who struck the next blow after kicking a penalty to the twenty two and scoring under the posts through centre Tom Adams and the conversion gave Lichfield the lead back at a 26-20.

But Burton bounced back again and for a period dominated in all areas apart from the scrimmage. A sweet chip over the top from full-back Danny Campbell put Burton in the corner and after a Lichfield knock on in the lineout Burton had a five metre scrum. Lichfield defended well and Burton’s next chance came from another Banton penalty attempt, but unfortunately the ball bounced up off from the cross-bar on to the wrong side of the line. Ex-colt Joel Briggs replaced Parkinson to make his first team debut for the club and Burton pressed hard again, but were held up over the line. However, with no advantage being gained after a high tackle earlier in the move allowed them to kick for the corner. Kieran Hawketts found Josh Cartwright and the pack drove forward to set-up Danny Smith to come off his wing to score from the back of the maul. The conversion slipped wide and Burton trailed 26-25.

Lichfield were next to attack, but Taylor took man and ball perfectly before hacking ahead to take Burton to back up to half-way. Burton were now pressing hard whenever Lichfield had the ball and this constant pressure brought a knock-on. Edwards took a quick fee kick after an offence at the resulting scrum and Burton shipped the ball out quickly to Sam Smith who dived over to make it 26-30 in the favour of Burton.

But despite Burton’s fantastic comeback the killer blow soon came from Lichfield as they used their backs to move the ball quickly out to their right wing to score and then they converted the try to take a 33-30 lead.

But yet again Burton showed the tremendous character to press for a score as debutant Tom Cooper made ground and a driving maul took them into sight of the line. Sadly a penalty for not releasing on gave the hosts chance to kick to touch and close out a game which would have made a most worthy final.