WELCOME MATTY HAS TO END...
THEY’VE become a mean machine on the road, but midfielder Matty Palmer reckons Burton Albion need to stop being a soft touch at home to maintain their Championship status.
In recent times, Nigel Clough’s men have successfully shut up shop away from home. The Brewers have kept clean sheets in four of their last six road trips and picked up a useful point in their last away outing, a 1-1 draw at Brentford in midweek.
However, Burton have let in goals at an alarming rate at the Pirelli Stadium this term, conceding four times against Aston Villa, Wolves and Barnsley. Last weekend, they went down 3-1 at home against highflying Sheffield United, with Palmer on target.
It’s something Palmer says the low-budget Brewers need to address if they are to upset the odds and survive for a second season in the Championship.
“We need to improve our home form,” said Palmer. “We haven’t done very well at home and we’ve done better away. It’s the complete opposite to last season.
“We need to make our home ground a tough place to come and pick up a few points there.”
Conceded
And the 22-year-old, who came through the ranks at Burton and has already notched up more than 150 appearances, says the Brewers need to be more ruthless.
“When we scored against Sheffield United and it was 1-1, we had another chance to score and it didn’t go in,” he said.
“Then we conceded literally two minutes after equalising. It kills us and we need to stop doing that. We need to get another goal and try to go on from there.”
Despite being in the relegation zone heading into yesterday’s home game against Chris Coleman’s Sunderland, Palmer is optimistic the Brewers can defy the odds again.
More gritty displays like they turned in against Brentford in midweek will help their chances.
Grabbed
The Bees thought they had the points in the bag when Florian Jozefzoon curled home a magnificent free-kick early in the second half.
But Burton stuck to their task and grabbed a hardearned point when Ben Turner headed home 12 minutes from time.
“We couldn’t do anything about their goal, but coming to Brentford and getting a point is a good result,” added Palmer.
“They are very good on the ball and their movement is good. We went 5-4-1, so we maybe set up to get the point.
“They’ve been on a good run, but we came with a plan and it worked.”