NIGEL Clough said that Accrington was one game too far for his weary team as they went down 2-0 at the Wham Stadium.
The Brewers manager was forced to make three changes at half-time as tiredness and injury took its toll on his team who didn’t have enough left in the tank to deal with Accrington on the day.
He said: “I probably made a mistake by not freshening it up a bit and bringing a couple in. We might have started with Reece Hutchinson, David Templeton and Joe Sbarra but we decided to take a chance with John Brayford and Stephen Quinn with their fitness and they couldn’t continue at half-time. Oliver Sarkic was shattered from the first minute so we had no choice but to make the three substitutions. Hindsight’s a lovely thing and we should have done it from the start and got those fresh legs out there.
“Those back-to-back home wins took it out of us but we thought having played so well on Boxing Day to go with the same line-up and see if we could get another result.
“I thought we created situations in the first half and Colin Daniel has a good opportunity to put us ahead and at 1-0 Liam Boyce has hit the bar. If one of those goes in it might have been a different story. They capitalised and took their opportunities.
“There was a certain misfortune with their first goal as John Brayford has cleared it but it has rebounded to their lad.
“The lads gave absolutely everything today but a couple of crucial moments in the game didn’t go our way.”
Young Academy graduate Ben Hart came on for the third consecutive game and got 45 minutes under his belt to celebrate a contract extension.
Clough said: “He did well when he came on and that’s the longest he has been on the pitch for us and we have now extended his contract until the end of the season.”