DEJI Oshilaja said “the boys are hurting right now as this is not the standard we expected of ourselves" after Burton Albion bowed out of the Papa Johns Trophy at home to Accrington Stanley last night.
Oshilaja had given Albion a dream start with his seventh goal of the season as they led within seven minutes. But Accrington fought back, equalising twice and making it 3-2 before half-time before putting the game to bed in the 68th minute thanks to Harvey Rodgers’ second strike of the evening.
A disappointed Oshilaja felt Albion simply weren’t at the races and were beaten by the better side on the night.
He said: “It’s really disappointing especially after the standards we’ve previously set ourselves in this competition as they’ve been at a high level, but tonight we simply weren’t at it at all to be honest.
“From minute one even though we went ahead early we didn’t really get going, we conceded some really poor goals and from top to bottom we weren’t good enough at all.
“We just didn’t get going at all you know, it was very un-Burton like and the boys are hurting right now because that’s not the standard we expect of ourselves especially at home.”
Manager Dino Maamria revealed prior to the match that a large percentage of the squad were ill as many of the group were nursing a nasty sickness bug. This meant several members of the squad weren’t available for the tie with some affected Brewers playing anyway - including Oshilaja.
Despite this ongoing issue Oshilaja didn’t think the players should use the sickness as an excuse for the result.
He added: “It’s not an excuse - it's hard work out there but I’m sure they’ve got illness in their camp as well and the boys should be professional enough to deal with that.
“I don’t really want to blame the illness for the way that we played.”
Next up for Albion is the short trip to Barnsley away this Saturday and the 29-year-old is confident the Brewers still have time to turn their season around.
“I think now we have to go and kick on in the league, we’ve got loads of games left so we’ve got to put this disappointment behind us,” said Oshilaja.
“Barnsley are doing well but it seems we do well against the better teams so I’m sure we’ll go there and give everything we’ve got. And I’m sure we’ll put on a good performance and put on a good account of ourselves.
“We still have full belief we’re going to get out of the situation we’re in.”