Opposition view: Burton boss Buxton 'has no qualms' after 'disappointing' loss to Cobblers

Burton Albion manager Jake Buxton bemoaned his side's slow start to the game after they were beaten 3-1 at home to Northampton on Saturday.

A cheap foul led to Harry Smith scoring Town's opener just 90 seconds in and Burton never recovered. Smith scored his and the visitors' second midway through the second-half before Chris Lines wrapped up the points.

Lucas Akins tucked away a stoppage-time penalty but that didn't stop Burton from dropping to the bottom of the League One table.

“We didn’t give ourselves a chance," said Buxton. "To concede so early is so disappointing after the work we did in the week and talking about not giving cheap fouls away as we needed to eliminate the threat of Northampton putting balls into the box.

"We know they can put you under pressure. Instead we give them a free leg up after one minute. It was tough to take.

"We were positive at half-time and we spoke about there not being much in the game and that we just needed to relax a bit more on the ball and be patient. We were rushing as we were trying far too hard and forcing things.

“But we had given Northampton something to hold on to. They could sit in and try and counter and hit us on the break."

Burton have just seven points from 13 games this season, five adrift of safety and a further two behind the Cobblers.

"I have tried to absorb the pressure as much as possible so that players feel the freedom to play," Buxton added. “I have to stick to my beliefs and I believe the players we brought in during the summer and the ones I inherited all want to play the correct away but ultimately we are not getting results so we have to look at different ways.

“What disappoints me most is that when it’s 0-0 in a game, or only 1-0, we haven’t quite got the bravery to do what we want to do.

“But the table doesn’t lie. There are games when we have picked up a point and we deserved three but today I have no qualms with the result, we didn’t deserve to get three points. We have to improve, and the players have to do what we are asking them to do better.”