Clough delighted as Fox nets late winner for Brewers

Posted Sunday, October 14, 2018 by PA

Burton boss Nigel Clough wore the smile of a happy and relieved man after he watched substitute Ben Fox grab all three points for his side with a 91st minute winner against League One strugglers Bristol Rovers.

Alex Jakubiak could have snatched the lead for Rovers after pouncing on a mistake from Albion midfielder Stephen Quinn but uncharacteristically squandered the opportunity when clean through.

That miss was punished as Fox netted the last-gasp winner to delight the home crowd.

Clough said: “It was nothing more than we deserved today.

“In our previous games the level of performances have been good and we have just needed a little break.

“Today we hit the post and the bar and you don’t think that it is coming but it was a reward today for persevering and keeping on doing the right thing. We kept playing and passing and the winning goal today showed that.

“We weren’t as good today as we were against Southend and at Wycombe at times last week but we were solid at the back and reduced a good side to very few opportunities again. It had the look of a nil-nil but we kept on going right to the end.”

With leading scorer Liam Boyce away on international duty Clough was delighted that someone stepped up and grabbed the goal to get Albion back to winning ways.

“With Boyce, (David) Templeton and (Marvin) Sordell all missing and losing Scott Fraser after 55 minutes we were never going to be at our most creative,” admitted Clough.

“But it took a midfielder to get forward in the 90th minute and finish something off. We were never going to create lost of chances considering who we had missing.”

For Pirates boss Darrell Clarke it was very much a case of deja vu having seen his side fall to a late winner for the second Saturday running.

“It’s a very low changing room as you would expect at the minute,” Clarke said.

“Effort, commitment, the non-negotiables, were good but the quality was not enough at times and then, like last week, we get done at the end so we have got to take our medicine again.

“We were robust, we were well organised and well drilled. Both sides have had chances. When Jaks goes through one on one you expect him to put that away but we have got to be more ruthless. We are not scoring enough goals and we need to raise the quality a bit and keep going.”

Rovers’ lack of goals told as they made it just one game in the last seven where they have found the net in the league.

“We need to get more control of the game,” said Clarke.

“Getting confidence into the forward play is important. We are spending too much time defending and we need to look more dangerous when we are on the front foot.”