JUST IN: For The Second Time After Match Steven Schumacher Made A “Shocking” Revelation About Burton Albion Despite The…

Burton Albion 1-2 Bolton Wanderers – Steven Schumacher view

STEVEN Schumacher hailed Wanderers’ determination to hold on to their first-ever win at Burton Albion and ensure they finished the weekend in the play-off positions.

Aaron Morley had put them ahead midway through the first half but when Ryan Sweeney equalised in controversial fashion, Josh Sheehan responded almost immediately with a fine right-footed strike to ultimately win three points.

But Schumacher was just as pleased with the 30 minutes of solid defending which followed, picking out Newcastle United loanee Alex Murphy for special praise as Wanderers dealt with the aerial bombardment in the final stages.

“It was a huge win, bigger than Tuesday night against Birmingham in some sense,” he said.

“This isn’t an easy place to come and play, ever. We spoke on Thursday about Bolton not having won here in however many years. And I’ve never won here as a coach.

“It’s a tough game and the way we played today was excellent, especially in the first half. We passed the ball really well on a difficult pitch, got into really good areas that we spoke about before the game and caused loads of problems.

“We should have been more than 1-0 up at half-time. In the second half, we’ve had to battle, scrap and find a way to come away with three points, which is what we wanted.”

Schumacher felt some better attention to detail in the first half would have resulted in a more comfortable afternoon at the Pirelli Stadium.

Though Morley had put them ahead, there were ample opportunities to extend the lead before Burton got themselves back into the contest after the break.

“There were a couple of occasions where we spoke about certain players having to be in certain areas of the penalty box in the first half and we were just disappointed that we didn’t manage to do that,” the head coach added.

“A couple of the chances when George Thomason passed it to Aaron Collins, I think that’s definitely one occasion he should probably have had a go himself. For all our good play and all our good moments, we just didn’t get ourselves more ahead in the game.

“There’s always a worry when that happens that the home team are going to come out in the second half and make it difficult for you.

“We gave away two fouls in the first five minutes of the second half, which allowed them to have the ball in our box for five minutes. Somehow, they managed to scramble it over the line from a scruffy goal, which was disappointing.

“After that, we settled down again and showed brilliant character and scored another worldie goal from Josh Sheeran. We showed good game management, I would say, to see it out.”

Replays showed the Sweeney goal should have been ruled out for handball but neither referee Lee Swabey nor his linesman had a clear view in the scramble.

“I haven’t seen it,” Schumacher shrugged. “The lads were saying it looked like it was a handball from where it was on the floor. The lino said he couldn’t even tell if it was in the goal or not.

“That gave us some extra work, and work that was unnecessary for us. We should have been ahead by more, but it’s football, isn’t it? It’s never as easy as you want it to be.

“Then it was a brilliant piece of quality from Josh. It gave us again that lead and something to build on and hold on to.

“We had a couple of moments not long after that where we might have got a third goal for a bit of a breathing space. But credit to Burton, they made it difficult for us. We said before the game we’d only lost two out of nine or 10 games, so it wasn’t going to be easy, and it wasn’t.

“It wasn’t an easy game, they put us under pressure. And late on, when the ball is bouncing around and they’re going, it’s coming up, your heart is in your mouth. But it doesn’t matter right now, the whistle went and we go home with three points.”