Maamria fumes at ‘performances I will not tolerate’
MANAGER Dino Maamria pulled no punches after watching Burton Albion labour to a 1-1 draw with Tranmere Rovers before edging through their Papa John’s Trophy second round tie 5-4 on penalties on Tuesday night.
The display was in stark contrast to the eager efforts the Brewers had put in during the competition’s group stages, particularly to win 3-2 away to Sheffield Wednesday and to trounce Bradford City 4-0.
Maamria’s reaction suggested he is losing patience with some of his players.
“It was an awful performance and the first half was really poor,” said Maamria.
“Performances like tonight are not something that I will tolerate.
“I wasn’t happy at half-time and we made five subs and I could have made more.
“I was trying to look after one or two for the FA Cup at the weekend, but that first half was not acceptable.”
Maamria has repeatedly said that, however maligned the Papa John’s Trophy may be, victories in it put money in the coffers – £20,000 for Tuesday’s victory – and he wants to take Burton as far as possible in it.
“I said before the game that we had to do whatever it takes to go through and we did that and made it very, very ugly,” said Maamria.
“The biggest positive was that, despite the way we played, we showed that character to go again, stay in the game and it was smash and grab.
“They scored and made a good start, and in the second half they were comfortable, but we showed that character and got through.
“But we aren’t good enough to do that – we have to be 80 to 90 per cent each week.
“We are not a team who are going to win games at 60 per cent.
“I really wanted to go through. I said from day one that this is a competition we want to go far in.
“With the quality we can play with, we will win games in this competition and we have already beaten some good teams.
“I would have been gutted if we had not gone through.
“We have a big game in the FA Cup at the weekend and we can’t afford this type of performance or we will get punished.”
The Brewers lost Michael Mancienne to injury after 42 minutes in what was his first appearance of the campaign following knee surgery in the summer.
“We are really short on defenders, and Mance wasn’t 100 per cent ready, but we played him and he had a back problem, but hopefully, he is OK,” said Maamria. ■■The draw for the third round of the Papa John’s Trophy, now down to the last 16, will be made this evening.
The remaining three second round ties were due to be played last night.