Port Vale 2-3 Burton Albion reaction – only have ourselves to blame
Reaction from manager Darrell Clarke, striker Jamie Proctor and Burton boss Dino Maamria after Saturday’s game…
Darrell Clarke
I thought it was a really poor performance, nothing like our last five games and miles off from where our performance levels have been.
Scoring two goals should win you a home game but we were sloppy at times, a bit naïve at times and we have not produced the quality that we have been.
It was (frustrating), especially after how we started the game; we started the game brightly, scored the goal, but I never felt that we got our link up play right today.
We didn’t win enough battles, enough second balls – which is unlike us to be fair – but we take our medicine, it was a poor performance.
We have to climb the mountain after conceding so soon after half-time and we huffed and puffed but didn’t get ourselves going today so we have to take that on the chin.
The penalty looked soft but sometimes they get given; I thought they did what they needed to do to win the game.
We only have ourselves to blame today; we have to play a lot better than we did today to win a game at League One level.
Jamie Proctor
I think after the way we started the game, you think we can kick on now and we have been saying for weeks about the good football we have been playing and that we could win by three, four or five. It felt like that after going 1-0 up early doors but for some reason we took our foot off it and the game was out of sight before long.
We gave it a go but ultimately the performance was nowhere near where it has been in the last few weeks.
It just seemed a little bit flat at times, but I also felt we had control at times. We went out with a gameplan and that can change for better or for worse when you go 1-0 up nice and early.
I can’t put my finger on why the performance was what it was, but we will bounce back as we always do.
Dino Maamria – Burton manager
We knew this was a big game for us and our fans. I have seen Port Vale come to the Pirelli in their last two games, in the FA Cup last season and this season, and they celebrated it properly. That hurt me personally, big time, and I reminded our players about that and what it means to our fans to make sure we turn up. We didn’t come to defend, we came to win the game.”
We were terrific today in a derby game, when you see the state of the pitch, which is actually worse than ours.
To win these games you have to compete, scrap, show fighting spirit and defend as a team. We came with an intent to win the game, we picked an attacking team and our game plan worked brilliantly.
I thought Jonny Smith and Charlie Kirk were brilliant and in transition we hurt them all the time. In the first half we were actually disappointed we didn’t score more goals. Their keeper made a brilliant save from Jonny and we had an absolute blatant stonewall penalty (not given).