Nigel Clough saw his Burton Albion side lose 2-1 at the Trade Recruitment Stadium on Tuesday and bring to a close a season in which they have recorded their highest-ever league finish.

But the Brewers boss is still fuming about the official's decisions during Friday's match to award the penalty and free kick from which United brought the game back to 2-2.

"You keep thinking back to Friday night," he said. "We've had that for the last three days - the wondering, the anger and the injustice of it and that won't go away. It probably will never go away; we might never get this close to Wembley and the Football League again, so to have it taken away from us in the manner it was will be very difficult to deal with for a long time.

"We are immensely proud of our lads, the season we have had and the performance we have put in over the two games in their first experience of the playoffs. They'll go away and return nice and refreshed and have another crack at it next year, but there was not much more we could do than we've done in the two legs.

"We should have come here with a lead but we didn't. What we will do next season is, instead of getting 37 bookings, which is 20 per cent less than anybody else, we will start haranguing officials a bit more and see if they will give us a decision."

Clough was equally annoyed that the deciding goal was one he described as a 'fluke', when Rob Wolleaston's intended cross dropped over Kevin Poole and into the far corner of the net.

"Nothing went for us over the two games so to be beaten by a fluke goal doesn't surprise me," he commented.

"We played well in both games. I think for being a part-time side it's been quite remarkable the run we've had this season and the performances in the play-offs.

"It was a disastrous start for us - we told the lads to keep things tight for the first 15 minutes and keep their crowd quiet and we found ourselves behind after a minute, but for the rest of the first half we were very good indeed. We created all the chances and we deserved to go in at the break in the lead. We dealt with them after the break and had our chances as well."

Expressing again his disappointment at failing to reach the final, Clough commented, "We won't ever put these games out of our minds - we may never get this close again. The league will be strong next year; the teams that have come down will be strong and those teams that have struggled this year will be stronger so this might have been our one and only opportunity.

"We will try to improve the team but there are big budgets out there and people are playing big money that we can't afford. Like the team we have just lost to, they are losing £400,000 a year and that's about our budget that they are losing.

"We'll try and bring players in but the most important thing now is to see if there is a flight out of Stansted at half eleven this evening as that's the nearest airport to here!"

Interview by David Gray

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