Head coach Gary Bowyer hailed Burton’s “character and resilience” after his side struck deep into stoppage time to snatch a 3-2 win over Reading.
Rumarn Burrell bagged the opener in the 10th minute, with former Royals striker Jon Dadi Bodvarsson making it two. It looked like goals from Michael Craig and Sam Smith would earn Reading a point until Burrell grabbed a last-gasp winner.
“I thought we were terrific in terms of going forward first half, but they are a good team and the way they played against our system was hurting us,” Bowyer said.
“The first is a brilliant goal from Ru (Burrell),” Bowyer added. “It’s a wonderful cross in from Jack Armer. Then we score from a well-worked set play that we had identified. I think there was a suspicion of offside, but we’ll take that.”
Albion had a glorious chance to go three-up in the second half with JJ McKiernan steering the ball wide from close range and Bowyer felt it would come back to haunt his side.
“As soon as it happened I turned to Pat (Lyons) and said ‘2-2’,” Bowyer said. “You have been in that position so many times as a manager that we knew that was the moment to kill them off and we didn’t. Fair play to them, they got themselves back in it.
“But wow. What character and resilience. The mantra of the next goal doesn’t change. What a ball in from Owen Dodgson and Ru, again, is terrific in getting in there to score and see it through to the end.”
Noel Hunt cut a hugely frustrated figure as he felt his Reading side were on the wrong end of some key decisions before switching off at the end to throw away a point.
“It is really frustrating,” Hunt said. “The lad is two yards offside for the second goal. We have to rely on these officials to do their jobs properly because it is costing us.
“We had a stonewall penalty on Harvey (Knibbs) not given.”
Hunt felt his side were the better team on the night but should have been smart enough to ensure they got the point their second-half fightback deserved.
“The way we played tonight I thought we were far better than Burton,” Hunt added. “We dominated and created chances. To go 2-0 down was tough. To get it back, the fight that the boys showed was a lot more like us.
“At the end I was trying to scream to slow the game down and sometimes you need to know that what you have, take it and accept it, but they felt they could go and win it but just one lapse in concentration has cost us.”