Now I've slept on it I still feel positive. Clough said he had a plan to keep Cauley quiet and it worked. However we did have chances and we didn't concede. I think Portsmouth have to win so I'm hopeful of a win on Saturday . They've been conceding goals but also scoring them but we ve not been too shabby away . Sounds like Sunderland had a good night but they too are letting in goals. It's going to be tight but we seem to have the team spirirt, they're working for each other and they want to get promotion. So glad we don't have Clough for a manager, those poor fans have nothing to sing about.
Agreed Helen. We got a point and didn't concede, although it wasn't good entertainment. All we need to do from now on is match the combined records of Sunderland and Portsmouth and we're up. 90 points should do it - that's 8 wins from 13 games. I'm relaxed and confident.
I thought a Burton were outstanding! Levels of energy and desire rarely seen down here from an opposition team. Some fantastic crunching tackles as well which, if you’re an away fan you really want to see. Didn’t offer much up top but well worth their point.
Burton came for a point and got exactly that. They defended very well and crowded out the midfield and defence when we attacked. Credit to them for that and it actually stopped us playing the way we like to play.
Agree with Dalestyke. They came for a point and worked insanely hard. Clough tweaked formations and reacted and counteracted to everything we did. He set up for a stalemate and got it. We didn't play badly, we just got neutralised. My personal view is if you're going to come up against man markers and a very rigid formation, you have to beat a man. That ruins the shape and starts to pull players out of position and open up space. I was again really disappointed with Cavare. He started off really well, defensively he was solid and showed he'd improved from that, but his game was epitomised for me near the end where he casually tried to make a pass stood upright and flicked it straight out for a goal kick. The game needed us to run at their players and try and beat them, and Brown, Hedges and Cavare didn't manage that tonight. Alternative, you can try and pass through them with quick accurate passing. Bahre had a poor game generally, as did McGeehan, who sadly broke so much of our play up with poor control that it gave Burton time to close down. Hats off to Burton, they succeeded to produce a stalemate. Still in the box seat as we enter the run in.
Agreed. They were excellent They were a championship team last year and didn’t deserve to go down really..
The way Burton set up was terrible in terms of entertainment but they got what they came for. I'm just relieved we won't see such negative, anti football tactics every week. Having said that we failed to break them down, too many players weren't at their usual levels so I can't complain about the result too much.
Sorry but can't admire a team who were obviously coached to cheat and waste every available second from the word go, the ref was waving at their Goalie from virtually the 1st goal kick to get on with it, every foul, throw in ,goal kick or stoppage was used to run the clock down, sadly the ref wasn't strong enough to book the goalie, which he could have done after 15 minutes for blatant timewasting. this allowed the game to be broken up and stop us getting into the attacking pace were becoming known for. Yes we were guilty of allowing this to affect us but it should be seen for what it was and not some heroic last stand...
