BREWERS manager Martin Paterson says that despite today’s hugely disappointing result against Fleetwood Town, he is delighted that Burton Albion have secured safety in Sky Bet League One.
Albion went down 3-0 at Highbury in a poor showing on the final day of the season, but Paterson says the main thing is that he’s happy to have met his objective of survival from when he was appointed in January.
“It’s massive - my remit from Mr. chairman was to get this team safe. It was always going to be tough. The group have done it so I don't want them to have a hangover from today.
“It was a terrible performance. It's been tough for me. It's been really tough. I came into football club alone. I told the chairman I could do the remit and I've done it.
“As a performance, I'm not happy, I told the players that at halftime. We froze, but what I will say is everything is going against this group.
“Even you look at Tuesday and you're hoping that we won't have to go into the final day but then you see what happened with that and I'll say no more because I don't want to look for excuses, but ultimately we have to do the job.”
Paterson said the Brewers squad was ‘down to the bare bones’ after a tough season, added to recently losing the likes of Joe Powell, Tom Hamer and John Brayford to injury.
“Unfortunately, the players couldn't do it today - there was too many fatigued players. Ultimately, we froze. We really did and the players seized up when they went one nil down. We started so poorly and again, but that's done and I've drawn a line under it because over the course of the season, we have done enough to be a League One club.
“Mr. Clough called call me last night and wished me well. He told me how hard he thought this job was. I'm very thankful for the call and it just goes to show what this football club means. I'm delighted to come in alone and get this job and get them over the line. It's not been easy, I can assure you. We've had tough times, but we've got big wins that have got us over the line.
“I stand up there in my chest puffed out. It's been tough. It's been really tough because people don't know how hard this assignment has been. And I can say that now because it doesn't sound like an excuse. The most important thing is that we stayed in League One.”
