It should have been all over at half-time, says Nigel
FRUSTRATING NIGHT FOR BREWERS AS THEY LET SHRIMPERS OFF HOOK AT PIRELLI
NIGEL Clough says Burton Albion paid the price for ‘wasted opportunities’ in the first half against Southend United.
And he said his team’s failure to finish the Shrimpers off at the Pirelli Stadium gave the visitors the encouragement they needed to turn the League One clash on its head and win 2-1.
The Brewers led 1-0 at the break through Liam Boyce’s header and they were disappointed not to be further ahead after a dominant firsthalf display.
But Southend were re-energised after half-time and, with Albion unable to replicate the same quality or intensity, they fell to a 2-1 defeat as Tom Hopper and Simon Cox struck for the visitors. It was a disappointing outcome to an evening that began so well for Clough’s side.
“It’s another case of about 80 or 90 per cent of the performance being very good and the game should’ve been over and finished at half-time,” said the Brewers boss.
“The only reason we haven’t won the game is wasted opportunities in the first half. There were so many of them.
“Then in the second half, not starting the game as we finished the first half and allowing them encouragement to get back into it in the first 15 of the second half.
“They get a goal from a corner, a scramble towards the end and you end up losing a game that should be a comfortable victory.”
Boyce’s goal followed a closerange miss earlier in the game from the Northern Ireland international, while David Templeton and Jake Hesketh saw efforts tipped onto the woodwork by Mark Oxley and Damien McCrory mishit a good chance.
Clough reckons spurning those chances in a dominant first-half showing will have given Southend a lift - and they duly responded after the break to claim a third successive win.
“It’s about making the most of ‘your day,’” added Clough, referring to comments at the weekend that his side have the match of any League One rival on their day.
“If you’re scrapping around and there’s nothing in the game then fair enough, it’s a tight game.
“But that wasn’t the case tonight. The first half should have been sufficient to win the game.
“We should have come in at 3-0 and then you pick the team off in the second half and maybe go and get four or five goals.
“But to come in at 1-0 will have given them such a lift. If that’d been us away from home, we’d have come in at 1-0 and we’d have thought we’d won the pools.
“It would have been, ‘this game should be over,’ and you come in sometimes, it’s like coming in drawing or winning that you’re only 1-0
down.
“Some of the play was so good, one and two-touch play. We weren’t as fluent on Saturday, we used that word.
“We were fluent for large spells of the game. Even when they scored after about an hour, we then got back into the game and for the next 15, 20 minutes, we were very good again and couldn’t quite get that goal.”