BURTON (4-4-2):
Bywater 6; Brayford 7, Naylor 7, McFadzean 6 (Turner 90), McCrory 6; Akpan 5 (Murphy 79), Sordell 7, Davenport 5, DYER 7; Boyce 7 (Allen 85), Bent 6.
Subs (not used): Samuelson, Buxton, Sbarra, Egert.
MIDDLESBROUGH (4-1-4-1):
6 Randolph: Didn’t have a chance with Sordell’s goal and claimed a couple of dangerous crosses into the area
4 Cranie: Handed his first start ahead of Shotton, but looked nervous and hesitant throughout as Burton caused problems down their left
6 Ayala: Did reasonably well against Bent, winning a majority of headers and forcing the striker to run the channels
6 Gibson: Rarely looked troubled at the heart of Boro’s back four and tried to step out with the ball on a couple of occasions
6 Friend: Ensured Burton created little down their right-hand side, but struggled to get forward on the overlap
5 Leadbitter: Tried to do the scrappy things at the base of midfield, but was never able to control the game
6 Traore: Came in for some rough treatment once again and never stopped trying, but this never really looked like being his day
4 Howson: Was furious when he was sacrificed before half-time - in truth, it could have been any of Boro’s midfielders hauled off
7 BESIC: Gave the ball away on occasion, but deserves credit for the way in which he kept plugging away trying to feed the ball into his strikers
5 Downing: Wasn’t a day for his slick, simple passing, and he wasn’t able to come up with an alternative way of making an impact
5 Bamford: Tested Bywater with a long-range effort, but wasn’t able to ask any serious questions of the Burton defence
Subs:
6 Assombalonga (for Howson, 36): Was in the right place at the right time to salvage a point – moments after he had blazed over the bar
Harrison (for Downing, 76)
Clayton (for Leadbitter, 79)
(not used): Konstantopoulos (gk), Shotton, Fry, Baker.
Man Of The Match: LLOYD DYER – The winger is 35 now, but he set up Burton’s goal and troubled Martin Cranie all afternoon.
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