JIMMY Floyd Hasselbaink's 100th game in charge of the Brewers ended in a 1-1 draw against Wimbledon as Burton Albion remain unbeaten in 2022.
The Brewers went behind in the 70th minute but pulled level through Daniel Jebbison and could have gone on to win it.
The manager said: “We knew they would have lots of energy and would make it a difficult game.
“They are in a false position in the league, and they made it hard for us
“We didn’t control the game as we wanted to control the game. There were too many long balls, and we didn’t pass it enough. Nevertheless, we still made chances but more from second balls. We need to force ourselves on a little bit more by controlling the game with the ball, passing it out and finding the free men
“When we did that, we put them in trouble, but we didn’t do that enough.
“In the second half we became a little bit too desperate and that’s why they scored. At 0-0 that’s still OK and you can score a goal in the 89th minute. We became desperate and didn’t do our job by heading the ball first and when you do that it’s dangerous.
“But then our spirit gets us back in the game and it’s 1-1 and you think there’s time to make it 2-1 but it didn’t come again because we didn’t have enough control and played too many long balls and that played into their hands.”
“Those are things we need to improve on and we are growing, and when you have a bit more experience and have played these kind of matches a few more times, hopefully it will become a second skin.”
There was a first start today for Ciaran Gilligan who earned Hasselbaink’s praise.
Hasselbaink said: “He has been training really well, catching our eye which is what we want young players to do. He sets the benchmark for other young players, and we are not afraid to put them in if they deserve to play. Ciaran played really well and gave us energy. He’s not the finished article but he’s an honest lad and he wants to learn.”