Burton Albion goalkeeping duo Craig MacGillivray and Jordan Amissah both praised the ‘unbelievable’ dressing room at the Pirelli stadium.
When both keepers signed the Brewers in January, things were not looking good for Albion as they sat in the bottom four of the Sky Bet League One table – having conceded 50 goals in their opening 25 league games.
Since then, Dino Maamria’s men have been nothing short of spectacular after they picked up a mesmerising 34 points in their last 21 games of the season to secure an impressive 15th-place finish.
Since Dino Maamria took the number one job at @burtonalbionfc 💥#Brewers #BAFC 🟡⚫️ pic.twitter.com/p5fiQ4cjhD
— Gabriel Sutton (@GabSutton) May 3, 2023
A huge part of Burton’s second half-of-the-season redemption story is former Portsmouth shot-stopper MacGillivray, who joined the Brewers on a free transfer from Charlton Athletic in January.
Since making his debut for the Brewers, MacGillivray has secured an impressive six clean sheets, whilst putting on several incredible performances throughout the second half of the season.
The former Pompey keeper put the team’s incredible run of results down to the ‘unbelievable’ dressing room at the Pirelli stadium.
He said: “It’s a weird one because it clicked straight away and obviously you see it where people bring players in, a lot of them and it doesn’t gel as they don’t have time to bond, but I’ve said it before it’s like us lads who came in, already feel like we were here.
He added: “It’s an unbelievable dressing room and it was very easy for everyone to gel and it’s been showed on the football pitch and we turned a corner and started picking up results.
“I think since I came in January there’s been a massive shift in terms of results, performances have been up there as well and we’re obviously a match for anyone in this league.”
During the winter window, Burton also brought in another goalkeeper in the form of Amissah, who arrived on loan from Sheffield United.
He may have only played three games for the Brewers – but the 21-year-old still reflects upon his time in Staffordshire with great pride saying he’s made friends for life.
The German keeper said: ”It’s been a great goalkeeping group to be in. Obviously, you’ve got Craig who’s got so much experience and you try to get those little tips, and obviously Ben as well, they’re just both two outstanding keepers and we’re just a very close goalkeeping group.
“The quality in the training room is massive definitely and as I said fair play to the manager as he really knew how to deal with the players and to get the best out of us, and we’ve seen it over the past few weeks we’ve got some results against big teams.”
The Blades loanee also revealed a nice new tradition which a group of loan players, who came in during the January transfer window, have planned to start next year once they return to their parent clubs.
Amissah added: “I knew Zac [Ashworth] from applying against him at West Brom, and Japer [Moon] from Barnsley which is not too far away from Sheff. Plus, Jasper, Zac, and Dale [Taylor] were traveling into St George’s every day to training. So you make good friends and we’ve already said we’re going to meet once a month for dinner next year – so yeah it’s been good and helpful definitely.”
