Through good times and bad - but mostly good - with Brewers

The Mail's Burton Albion reporter, Colston Crawford, retires today after 48 years in the industry, which has taken in two spells covering the Brewers, one of which included the historic promotion to the Football League. Here, he reflects on that time.

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FOLLOWING Burton Albion, whether as a supporter or a reporter, has been quite a ride in the last 20 years and it has been a privilege and a pleasure to have done so with both hats on.

For me, it is back to the Pop Side tomorrow for the FA Cup tie against St Albans City and while it feels as if I have been reporting on the club for a long time, it is actually only 16 years out of the 46 in which I have also been a supporter.

As an aspiring journalist, sport was what I wanted to write about from an early age but it was the nature of the business back then that you don’t necessarily get to specialise straightaway.

In the end, for one reason or another, I was 40 before I landed permanently on a sports desk, with the Derby Telegraph, at the time a rival publication to the Burton Mail. Now they are sister publications.

For me, reporting on the Brewers began in January, 2004, shadowing my then colleague and still friend and neighbour Ian Whadcoat, who had had the pleasure of reporting on Albion winning the UniBond League on a magical night away to Vauxhall Motors in April, 2002.

My first game sitting in what we called the Chicken Shed, the small press box at the back of the Eton Park stand, was nothing special, a scrappy 1-1 draw at home to Accrington Stanley, a fortnight after the Brewers had beaten the same opponents in a much better game, 4-2 in the FA Trophy.

I was soon wedged into that box regularly, with Ian Hawkins, the ground announcer then, as now, to my right and the Mail’s brilliant Rex Page to my left. Rex was already my hero as a football writer and remains so. We were in touch last week.

The 2003-04 season was nothing special. The Brewers finished 14th of 22, still getting established at the level, in a season when Daryl Clare's goals fired Chester City to the title. I remember Clare's brilliance in Chester’s 3-1 home win in March; Albion could not get near them.