It’s been just over a week since muggedoff.com made itself a favourite phrase across the EFL thanks to a superb Neil Harris post-match interview. We didn’t get the opportunity to hear the evolution of that phrase this week as United’s manager was given his marching orders in stoppage time for protesting Burton’s controversial equaliser, but you can be certain he would have felt every bit of the injustice.
Conceding late is always a tough pill to swallow. Conceding late like this is even harder. In the last 10 league games across two seasons, United have conceded 6 goals in the 80th minute onwards, an unsustainable amount. The game management and application towards the end of games has to be questioned, but in this instance it’s hard to avoid the decisions of the referee in a single moment when looking back at the game.
Both teams came into the fixture looking to cement what had already been a good week. United were looking to collect the maximum six points on the road from two tricky away games - having seemingly done the harder part of that equation first on Tuesday night up in Bradford - while Burton were looking to back up a resounding 4-1 home win against a likely fellow relegation candidate AFC Wimbledon.