Clough felt Burton should have beaten Ipswich

Posted Sunday, February 11, 2018 by PA

Burton manager Nigel Clough felt his team’s performance deserved all three points in a dour 0-0 draw at Ipswich.

The home side were booed off the field at the end of the game and missed the chance to climb up the league and challenge for a play-off place in front of their lowest attendance of the season at Portman Road of 13,815 and the least for a league game since 1998.

But the result also kept the visitors propping up the league and four points from safety.

Burton had two fine chances to win the game with Darren Bent’s shot being saved by Ipswich keeper Bartosz Bialkowski in the 56th minute before another magnificent stop in the dying moments from a deflected header from Kyle McFadzean.

Clough said: “It’s two points dropped and the performance deserved the three points. I thought our performance against Aston Villa last week deserved something and to play as well as we did in two games and only get one point is very harsh on us but it was nice to keep a clean sheet.”

Asked about January signing Bent, Clough acknowledged it was only his second game in eight months.

He added: “We can’t be too harsh on him but if his chance goes in we win the game but there were numerous other situations as well but everybody did their job and we were a whisker from getting the three points.

“The nicest thing is that we are not playing like a team at the bottom of the league and we will try that until the end of the season but what will be will be.

“We tried to win the game right up to the last minute and couldn’t have done any more apart from score.”

Clough also said the save from Bialkowski following a corner which was headed goalwards by McFadzean and deflected by Luke Chambers in the dying minutes was “magnificent”.

Ipswich manager Mick McCarthy conceded his team was lucky to come away with a point.

He said: “They kept going and a lesser together committed bunch of lads could have been beaten.

“We have not played well and they [Burton] have done well.

“It’s probably the worst game here all season. It was tough and maybe the opposition had a bearing on that.

“I thought they played well but at the end of it you make sure you don’t get beaten. We did not play well at all it was a tough game and they made it really hard for us.

“Nigel’s team acquitted themselves well and you have to give some credit to them. We were disappointing, it was a poor performance by us.”