JFH: ‘Like night and day’ before and after the break
JIMMY Floyd Hasselbaink admitted Burton Albion’s first-half tactics did not work out in their 1-1 draw away to Cheltenham Town on Saturday.
But the Brewers improved with a switch in style in the second half and were good value, in the end, for a point.
“We tried to do things a little bit different in the first half and it didn’t work,” said Hasselbaink.
“We lost the midfield and we didn’t get close to them. We weren’t at the races at all.
“They deserved to be in front, they played really well and were the much better side.
“We are a side that competes and we didn’t compete.
“We had to change something so I had to bring Lucas Akins in to make sure the ball stayed up front.
“Lucas did that very well and, from there, we could play.
“We did a lot better in the second half, it was like night and day.”
The manager said he fell short of reading the riot act at half-time because he was not unhappy with the work-rate – but he felt the team had over-elaborated at times.
“There were not harsh words at half-time because they’re an honest bunch but we had to speak and find a solution,” he said.
“They’re young lads and sometimes they’re doing things that they shouldn’t, like flicking balls and Play Station football, you know?
“In reality, it doesn’t work like that and we want simplicity. That makes football hard to play against. That’s what we did a lot better in the second half.
“The first half was bad, the second half was good. If we want to win games, you need to play well for a longer period.
“If you’re a really good side and you have an off-day, you might get one chance, you score and you can defend for 80 minutes but we are not there yet, not even close.
“We have to make them realise what they have to do for the whole match.”
Having sorted out the tactics at half-time, the Brewers equalised through Daniel Jebbison’s eighth goal of the season after 51 minutes but did not often look as though they might dominate enough to find a winner.
“We worked the goal really well but then we wanted to push on and it wasn’t meant to be,” said Hasselbaink.
“We got a little bit too rushed, we needed to stay calmer, wait for them to be a little bit more desperate, to suck them in and then penetrate.”
Last week, the manager had been concerned that, with several players having recently recovered from Covid-19, they struggled to last the 90 minutes.
This time, he felt that was not a problem.
“I was happy with the physical aspect of the game,” said Hasselbaink.
“Last week, we fell away in the last 20 minutes but I didn’t have the feeling that was the case this week.”
Cheltenham manager Michael Duff felt his side should have sewn the game up in the first half but praised the Brewers “unbelievable” defending, which was led by a brilliant performance from captain John Brayford.
“We did enough in the first half alone,” said Duff.
“They had one shot, in the 46th minute, but other than that, we had a lot of chances, one-on-ones, we hit the crossbar twice.
“We should have had a penalty but, to give them credit, some of the blocks were unbelievable, putting their bodies on the line.
“I’ve just seen two or three of them back and you have to give them credit for that.
“It’s their job, but not every team do it.
“In the second half, they changed a little bit and we couldn’t quite get the momentum back.
“We did in the last 10 minutes and there were four or five opportunities where it could have dropped to one of our players in the box but it seemed to keep dropping to them.”
Cheltenham stretched their run without a win to seven games but Duff felt they played well against Burton, again praising the Brewers.
“It’s probably as dominant as we’ve been for a long time, against a good team,” he said.
“They are a really difficult team to play against.
“It’s very rare you are going to get a free-flowing football match, so to speak, because they don’t let you.
“They are in your face and they press and turn you around.
“We dealt with that really well. They won by four last week so that shows you what a threat they are.
“They are where they are in the league for a reason and it’s because they are a really difficult team to play against.
“The way we moved it and played it wide, working overloads in wide areas and got crosses in – they were the pleasing things.”