Gaffer hands it to exemplary Brewers and says Rovers must take inspiration.
Darren Ferguson bemoaned his sides luck as they held Burton Albion to a 0-0 draw on the final day of the season; a result which was enough to see the visitors promoted.Having used all three substitutions, the Scot watched on as Aaron Taylor-Sinclair and Riccardo Calder both hobbled off with injuries which significantly hampered the hosts chances of finishing the season with a flourish.
“The two injuries put us down to eight outfield players and that was the game killed really, we couldn’t do much after that,” said Ferguson.
“I think a lot typified the season in terms of the quality in the final third of the pitch.
“I don’t think we had a shot at goal in the first half, and we didn’t move the ball quick enough. I don’t know if there were nerves.
“I’m glad we didn’t lose the game; I thought we would have gone on and won it if the injuries hadn’t occurred.”
After a nervy encounter that lacked tangible quality – in stark contrast to December’s six-goal thriller – the Scot was one of the first to congratulate the Brewers on their first ever promotion to the second tier.
“Congratulations to Burton, they fully deserve it, and it’s an outstanding achievement,” he said.
“They were very nervous because they were obviously aware of the Walsall score. Our fans were good again and we wanted to go out and show our appreciation but due to the Burton fans we weren’t able to do that.
“I think Burton are a great example of if you come out of that league (League 2), you can go again and I did that at Peterborough.”
The stalemate was just the third goalless draw that Rovers had been involved in all season and, having consigned the club to the fourth tier for the first time in twelve years, indicated the start of a busy summer for Ferguson.
“We’ve ended up fourth bottom after 46 games, there are no excuses, and it’s a big, big job to do in the summer now in terms of players I want in now obviously. We’ve already started and we’ve got a busy few weeks ahead,” he said.
“There’s lots to work on and I’ve got players in that dressing room that I definitely want to work with – there’s no question about that – and some partnerships that I’m seeing are working really well together so we’ll build on that and the ones we want to keep.
“We’ll try and recruit the right ones if we can; Tommy Rowe, can I persuade him to stay? Gary McSheffrey, we’ve clearly missed him in the last two games and obviously others as well.
“It’ll be busy in terms of I’m hoping players go out and I’m hoping to recruit the right players coming in – those with good character and those who can handle the expectation of us probably being favourites in League 2.”