Clough hurt most by manner of Burton’s relegation

Posted Sunday, May 06, 2018 by PA

The manner of Burton Albion’s relegation from the Championship as they lost 2-1 to 10-man Preston is what hurt Nigel Clough most but the Brewers boss concedes his side got what they deserved over the course of the season.

When Hope Akpan cancelled out Callum Robinson’s first-half opener after 63 minutes, Burton’s great escape looked to be complete.

However, goals in 87th and 88th minutes for Bolton to sealed a comeback victory over Nottingham Forest that left the Brewers needing a last-gasp winner to survive, only for Preston’s Louis Moult to strike a counter-attack hammer blow in injury time and condemn the visitors to League One.

“Everybody in dressing room is really flat as you would expect, there are a lot of upset players in there,” said Clough.

“But we are down and have been relegated because of a reason – over 46 games we haven’t been good enough it’s as simple as that.

“We just didn’t get enough points ultimately, we had too many draws and we wasted too many opportunities across the course of the season.

“What made it worse for us is that it all happened so late (today). Bolton were always going to be the problem, you always worry when your rivals are playing against a team with nothing to play for.”

Burton will now play in League One after two seasons in the Championship and Clough will only take one day off before beginning preparations.

“Of course I’m disappointed and the players are disappointed but we have to move on and preparation for League One will begin immediately,” he added.

“It’s a Bank Holiday tomorrow but Tuesday we get down to it and we will be looking at players’ contracts and looking, for instance, at how they are affected by relegation.”

Preston’s victory – which came despite Billy Bodin being sent off for two yellow cards – was not enough to sneak a play-off spot as Derby won 4-1 against Barnsley but after a seventh-placed finish, boss Alex Neil is positive about the future.

“The players always give it everything and I’ve been privileged to coach them this year,” he said.

“I’ve really enjoyed my year and there’s much more to come going forward.

“We are not far away and we have improvement to make but with the heart, desire, quality we’ve got, I think we’ve had a fantastic season.

“Regardless of what happened today, we can reflect on the season and reflect on a few things that mean we have come up short, but also with a lot of pride in what we have managed to achieve.

“There are elements we need to improve. What we need is to push it on again and if we can, improve the squad over the summer.

“I want to get as much as we can get done as early as we can and bring more competition into certain places. Without competition, improvement doesn’t take place.”