Brewer boss baffled by added time
The rollercoaster of football whistled its way through Pirelli Stadium this afternoon as the Brewers were undone at the death against AFC Wimbledon to see each side take home a share of the spoils.
With five minutes of added time up and the game heading into minute number 97, Darren Jones struck from a late corner crush Albion’s hopes of three points.
Striker Billy Kee had given Albion a first-half lead from the penalty spot after Dominic Knowles was fouled on 21 minutes.
Afterwards manager Gary Rowett spoke to Brewers Player: “It’s a feeling of disappointment because five minutes went up and I appreciate that it’s a minimum of five but you wouldn’t expect to play five minutes and 59 seconds would you?
“Then you have another substitution which takes 30 seconds so you’re looking at six minutes maximum, so to concede a goal in seven minutes and to play seven and a half is just frustrating and baffling.”
The Albion boss admitted the Brewers struggled to deal with the Dons’ constant attack on the Burton box.
“I’ve got no problem with the goal because they did cause us one or two problems from set-piece and getting balls into the box,” he explained.
Despite the late equaliser feeling like a defeat the Brewers are now five games unbeaten and Rowett praised his side’s disciplined approach to the game.
“You could argue they possibly deserved a draw on the run of play but I thought we stuck to our task man for man and we did really well to dig something out of the game.
“To concede from the last set-piece from the game at that point was just a little bit baffling,” he added.
Rowett explained how a switch in formation during the second-half looked to have settled the Brewers as Matty Palmer replaced striker Knowles.
“We felt in the first-half that we couldn’t get to grips with their three in midfield and they actually changed to 4-4-2 themselves early but we couldn’t stop that momentum of them getting balls into our box.
“Playing the extra man in midfield settled us down and helped get Matty and Robbie around the ball and we got in some excellent positions.”