‘We defended well, but didn’t do enough in the final third’, says winger

Lucas Akins said his Burton Albion side didn’t do enough to worry Stevenage on his return to his former club.

The winger, who spent two years at Boro before moving to the Brewers in the summer, had his side’s best two chances of the game, but in the first half fired over and in the second half found Chris Day instead of the goal.

Stevenage went on to win the game when Charlie Adams’ cross took a big deflection off Burton skipper Ian Sharps and ended up in the back of the net with just a few minutes of the match remaining.

Speaking about the game, and about the warm reception he received from fans and staff on his return to the Lamex, Akins said: “There wasn’t much in the game and it’s one of those things where we seemed like we were going to hold out and maybe get a point but it didn’t happen.

“It’s come off Sharps and it’s gone into the back of the net at a difficult time where it’s hard to recover.

“We didn’t really create as much as we usually do. Being away from home it was good that we did restrict them and I thought our defence was excellent, it was just unlucky it’s come off Sharps the way it has done and it’s wrong-footed Jon [McLaughlin].”

Speaking about the reception he received from fans, Akins added: “It’s not the first time I’ve [gone back to a former club].

“It’s been really nice to be fair. The fans were good to me when I was here and I’ve got nothing bad to say about them.

“The club as a whole was good to me and I’ve got many people I’m still friends with here. It was nice to see some familiar faces but it was disappointing when you come down to do a job and win the game.

“You want to do that, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing against, and we didn’t manage to do that.”