Neill Collins praises Devante Cole after brace helps Barnsley beat Burton

Posted Sunday, September 17, 2023 by PA

Barnsley head coach Neill Collins praised the performance of Devante Cole after he scored twice in a 2-0 win over Burton at Oakwell.

Cole opened the scoring in the 21st minute with a curled effort from the edge of the box, before completing his double 22 minutes from time.

Collins said: “I think it was a very professional performance, there was a lot of real good aspects.

“We always want more, we always want to come in with three or four goals and a clean sheet but I think overall there’s lots to be happy with and the most important thing, three points.”

On his side keeping a clean sheet, Collins added: “I think we deserved a clean sheet; I would’ve been disappointed not to get it.

“I think the reason we maybe couldn’t create more clear cut opportunities was because Burton were hard to break down, but therefore they found it hard to mount serious attacks.

“Overall, it was a positive team performance and a lot of hard work has gone in over the past couple of weeks.”

On the performance of Cole, he said: “Scoring goals wise he’s been excellent but the rest of his game has been really good for the team.

“He’ll be the first to say how well his team-mates have supported him, creating the chances and helping him on the press to get the ball.

“To have a striker so alive in front of goal, that’s what every manager wants.”

Burton manager Dino Maamria admitted they need to work on certain aspects of their decision making.

He said: “I thought some parts of the game were really, really good.

“When we get to the last 30 yards, our decision making needs to be better, our quality needs to be better.

“We’ve got to be patient; we know we’ve got a good front line.

“I think we don’t want to get to frustration and desperation because we know the problem, we’ve got to work on it.

“Our build up is really good from the back into the midfield, but when we get to those areas in the last 30 yards of the pitch, we move the ball really well in those areas and then lack the bit of quality there and that’s something we need to work on.”

On his side’s confidence coming out after the break, Maamria said: “If you look at the first half, they had one shot and they scored.

“They’ve got a brilliant forward; he’s been around the league for a while.

“He scored an unbelievable goal from 25 yards out, that’s just the quality you pay for and you can’t be disheartened with that because we’re playing against quality players in a quality team.

“We’re disappointed with how easy they got to the byline for the second goal, it’s something that we’ve worked on.”