Nigel Clough’s Burton end wait for win with Carabao Cup success

Posted Wednesday, August 15, 2018 by PA

Nigel Clough was relieved to see his Burton Albion side claim their first win of the season after they came from a goal down to beat Shrewsbury 2-1 in the Carabao Cup first round.

Shaun Whalley fired the hosts in front but David Templeton pulled Burton level on the stroke of half-time before Lucas Akins converted a 64th-minute penalty.

Burton, relegated from the Championship last season, had opened their League One campaign with defeats against Rochdale and Gillingham.

Manager Clough said: “I’m pleased. We don’t care what competition or whatever it was, we just wanted to win a game.

“We should have got something on the first day, we should have done better with the goals we conceded on Saturday at Gillingham, so we’ve been disappointed with our first two results.

“It was important just to get a win anyhow tonight.”

He added: “Last season was incredibly hard at times with the terrible home run we had, so we’ve been on a downer, I think, for quite some time and the only way you can get an upturn in your fortunes is by winning matches.

“Supporters feel better, we certainly feel better, and that starts tonight. Then we want to try and get something more importantly on Saturday.

“It’s still nice just to get through in the cup as well. To have six consecutive away draws and still make progress I think is good going.”

Clough was pleased to see summer signing Templeton mark his first start for the club with a well-taken equaliser.

He said: “I think he showed glimpses of what he can do and his goal probably summed it up in terms of it was out of nothing.

“Ben Fox has played him a great ball and he’s cut inside and he knows exactly what he’s doing, whipping it into the near post.”

Shrewsbury have now been beaten by one goal in all three of their matches this season following narrow League One defeats against Bradford and Charlton.

Manager John Askey said: “I thought we were very naive. First half, obviously, we played well and should have gone in at half-time 1-0 (up), but I think it was from our free-kick or our corner, we haven’t picked up and allowed them to break on us and then gambled in getting out and it’s cost us.

“Then from that point we seemed to find it hard work. Obviously, they were always going to improve and it probably gave them a lift just before half-time.”

As for the match-winning penalty, given when Luke Waterfall was adjudged to have held Scott Fraser, Askey added: “I couldn’t see. It looked harsh. I don’t know, you’d probably be able to tell me better, but it did seem harsh.”