Dino Maamria hails Burton desire after comeback victory at Bristol Rovers

Posted Sunday, February 19, 2023 by PA

Dino Maamria hailed Burton’s desire and spirit following their comeback win at Bristol Rovers as the Albion boss responded to accusations that his side are not entertaining.

Burton fought back from an early deficit at the Memorial Stadium to lift themselves five points clear of the League One drop zone after a fourth win in their last five games.

Substitute Charlie Kirk and forward Sam Winnall found the net for the visitors, after John Marquis had given the home team a ninth-minute lead.

“Our team displayed spirit, were full of desire, full of will to win, and we did the basics really well,” said Maamria.

“It’s never easy coming to places like this. You see the pitch is very bobbly, it’s very windy… We didn’t start the game well and conceded and Chris McCann came off with an injury.

“We had to change shape straightaway and it worked really well. Yes we won on the game 2-1 but really it should have been three or four.

“There was clearly a goal onside, Dale’s. It’s unbelievable,” he added, referring to Dale Taylor’s second-half effort that was ruled out for offside

“We’re all for discipline and my team is very, very disciplined, but we have to have competency in terms of officiating and they have to communicate better and they have to do their jobs.”

Before the match opposite number Joey Barton had said that Burton are not a side “for purists” and questioned whether anyone would pay to watch the Brewers play.

Maamria responded to that by saying: “I don’t want to read what the opposition say about us. We want to keep our camp focused on what we do. I’m not interested – I enjoy watching Manchester City and Arsenal, Manchester City more, but that’s the football I enjoy watching and at our level it’s just about winning games.”

Rovers, in contrast to Burton, are in a poor run of form and have now gone seven games without a win and Barton admits that morale in the camp is suffering as a result.

“It’s a tough moment for us, as a group, and the lads are lower on confidence than you would like,” he said.

“We had a great start and went one nil up and possibly should have had a second or third.

“There was a break in play [for a medical emergency in the crowd] and we didn’t seem to recover after that.

“We didn’t deal with a long punt down the pitch and a team that had created nothing found themselves level in the game. That eats into the lads’ confidence.

“Second half, we kept having a go but we lacked a lot of quality. It’s a tough moment, but we’ve just got to keep scrapping through it.”