Clough hails defensive display as Burton earn point at Barnsley

Posted Wednesday, February 20, 2019 by PA

Burton boss Nigel Clough was the happier of the two managers as his side earned a deserved point in a goalless League One draw at promotion-chasing Barnsley.

This was a drab affair with few clear-cut chances for either side and the highlight of the evening was Barnsley fan Steve Croft leading the two sides out in this re-arranged fixture.

Five months ago, the 61-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest in the abandoned home match against the Brewers, and he proudly strode out ahead of the two teams, along with members of the emergency services on a night of fundraising for Yorkshire Air Ambulance, who were on the scene that day in September.

Matters off the pitch were certainly more memorable than the proceedings on it, but Clough was happy his side had stifled an in-form Barnsley side, who barely created any clear-cut chances all evening.

Clough said: “I am delighted with the point and clean sheet. I was pleased with the way we went about it and we started very positively.

“We are talking here about a team unbeaten for a long time, free-scoring, and we’ve restricted them to very few chances and had more than often opportunities and situations ourselves to nick one.

“We defended brilliantly, they had one shot from Cauley Woodrow in the first half, but not a lot after that. We got a few blocks in, but had no major scares.

“That’s three out of four clean sheets for us and the only we goal we have conceded lately is that scruffy one at Shrewsbury on Saturday and we have defended brilliantly in the last four games.

“We also had a very, very big shout for a penalty on Liam Boyce in the second half.”

Clough also praised striker Lucas Akins for slotting in at left-back for the second half, describing his performance as “magnificent”.

He added: “Colin Daniel was told one more foul and he was off, so we put Lucas at left-back, and to go from centre-forward to left-back and perform as well as he did in both positions was incredible.”

Opposite manager Daniel Stendel was not too downhearted by the dropping of two points and was pleased to see his side stretch their unbeaten league run to 13 matches.

He said: “I am disappointed, but not dissatisfied – we didn’t have too many chances, we had a few in the first half, but in the second half not many.

“The players in the dressing room had the feeling of losing this game, but we tried a lot of things to score, but we played too complicated and played too many poor passes.

“We didn’t have the best day but we still came away with a point and we kept our unbeaten run going. I am very proud of my team in the past few weeks and how well we have played.

“We take one point more and Saturday against Portsmouth is another game.”