With Burton Albion not having an U23s team, young Brewers are not always afforded an easy path to the first-team at the Pirelli Stadium.
However, there has been a good production line of youngsters in respect to the club’s size in recent, with the likes of Matty Palmer, Teddy Sharman-Lowe, and Joe Sbarra all having made the step into the Brewers’ first-team, with some even earning a move up the Football League pyramid.
With the club’s retained list out and signs of another significant summer shake-up from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, it could be a big season for some lucky youngsters to stake a claim and put their foot in the door.
One young talent the fans feel deserves a chance to impress now is Tom Hewlett.
The 21-year-old has dealt with two significant knee injuries in as many seasons, so getting out on loan in February with Southern League Premier Division side Redditch United for the rest of the season was a massive confidence booster.
He is a striker with a significant physical presence despite not being the tallest. He’s the young blood that the Brewers lack with only two other strikers on the books ahead of pre-season. His pace and physicality is what Burton Albion lacked in front of goal during the season.
With Hewlett hoping to stay injury-free ahead of the 2022/23 season, there will be no one better than manager Hasselbaink to help him work on his game and show the fans what he’s capable of.
Hasselbaink has already shown this season that he can work well with young strikers and blood them into first-team football, with the Brewers managing to capture young Sheffield United starlet Daniel Jebbison on the final day of last summers window. Jebbison came to Staffordshire looking for his first taste of men’s professional football, with Hasselbaink working with him and giving him the opportunity he deserved. The young Canadian went on to score nine goals in the first half of the season before Sheffield United recalled him in January.
Burton Albion’s coaching staff obviously see the potential in Hewlett, handing him a new deal despite not playing much in the past two years. Hopefully, he can come back to pre-season fit and firing and it won’t be long before the fans can see what this academy graduate is all about.