Boyce: We went out like a damp squib
FOR Liam Boyce, excitement turned to disappointment in his first appearance in the FA Cup.
The Northern Ireland international ended an eight-game wait for a goal when he got Burton Albion back into Saturday’s first-round tie with League One rivals Scunthorpe United, rifling a low finish past the previously obstinate Jak Alnwick in the home goal after 79 minutes.
But the damage had already been done for Albion, with two soft goals conceded before the break, James Perch and Lee Novak capitalising for Stuart McCall’s side.
It means the Brewers, who will have a chance to reach the Carabao Cup semi-finals next month, have still not won an FA Cup game since December, 2013.
And Boyce bemoaned the fact that his side will not get the chance to go on a memorable run in the world’s oldest football competition, as they have done in the other cup.
“It’s my first FA Cup game, so I was a bit excited and looking forward to the game,” said the Albion forward, who will now head away on international duty.
“But in the first half, we weren’t up to our A game.
“We had a couple of half-chances and if one of those goes in, it changes the whole game.
“Just the way their goals came about, it’s a bit disappointing.
“It was a deflected free kick, the keeper has to react, but we let that affect us the rest of the half.
“We should have been trying to push to get a goal before half-time and it would’ve set up the second half for a good go at them.
“To be fair, we stuck at it in the second half, we played well and got a goal. It was just a bit too late.
“You always see FA Cups, teams and underdogs going on long runs, so we’re disappointed we don’t have the chance to be one of those underdogs when you get to the later stages.
“We’ve done it in the other cup and we came into this game really confident, thinking we were going to go on a run.
“But, in the first half, we shot ourselves in the foot and gave ourselves too big a mountain to climb.
“That turned out to be the way it went.”
Nigel Clough made his frustrations clear after the game, suggesting the first 45 minutes put him in mind of a pre-season friendly – and Boyce acknowledged that was in stark contrast to a week before. “I think it was probably just down to the way we started,” he said.
“He (Clough) must be disappointed with the way we started, because last week we were unbelievable against Walsall in the first half and killed the game.
“He’ll be disappointed at that. It’s such a big competition and we went out like a damp squib in the first half, didn’t put in the performance we should have or we thought we were going to.
“I thought, in the second half, we played really well.
“If we’d been a bit lucky we might have got a couple more goals and still been in the cup.
“We need to forget it now. We’re back to the League, that’s the most important thing now. We need to start climbing up the League.”