I thought it was an incredibly frustrating performance. Burton were there to be beaten and if we'd just taken a bit more care and had a bit more quality, I think we would've won easily.
Grumbles...
Our crossing - both in open play and from set pieces was dreadful. I did start wondering if the low corner (i.e. ankle height) to the near post was a deliberate tactic. We got in loads of good positions and the delivery, time after time, was poor.
Louis Reed - he had an absolute nightmare in terms of his passing. Credit to him though for his workrate and for never hiding, it would've been easy to think "I'm having one here, I'll not show for a pass for 5 minutes" but he never did. Needs to improve to stay in and around the team though.
Our passing in general - it wasn't just Reed. How many times in the first half did a 'pass' just go out of play for a goalkick? There was a spell in the 2nd half when we must've misplaced 5 or 6 simple passes (in our own half) in succession. Take out sideways passes between Collins and Edgar and our pass completion percentage will have been shockingly low, partly because of how direct we were at times but mainly because we were so sloppy.
Billy Sharp's finishing - first I should say that I thought it was his best all round game for us. It might seem harsh to knock him for missing one chance but it's another good one that he's missed. He gets paid the big money to be the difference by taking the chances that come his way more often than not and that's not happening yet - I think he'll look back on September and think he should've had at least 3 more goals than he's got. Whilst we're not quite firing, we need him to be winning tight games for us.
I'm never usually too disappointed with a point away from home and it's great to get a clean sheet but I came away from the ground last night thinking we'd missed a really good opportunity. A better side than Burton (and regardless of what the current table says, they do exist at this level) would've punished us.
