NIGEL Clough hailed Burton Albion’s defensive effort as they thwarted Oxford United to claim a “magnificent” point.

The home side had to radically change their approach when John Brayford was dismissed for bringing down Jerome Sinclair in the 12th minute.

United dominated proceedings and ratcheted up the pressure, but found Burton were well organised and tough to break down.

And Clough was thrilled they saw out the game to claim a goalless draw.

He said: “It was very difficult for us from that point to win the game and it’s a magnificent point and a great clean sheet.

“What good teams do is when your teammate makes a mistake, the rest dig in deeper and you try much harder and that’s what they did.

“I thought the spine of the team – Brad (Collins) in goal, the two centre halves, (Stephen) Quinn, (Scott) Fraser and (Liam) Boyce got us the result.”

The Brewers boss had no complaints over the red card, which came from Sinclair’s pace.

“He did what good strikers do, you get somebody sent off in the first ten minutes and then you’ve got 80-odd minutes against ten men,” Clough said.

“We had no real choice after that but to go to two banks of four and try to contain them.

“We still wanted to be a threat on the break.

“But the main thing was defending that clean sheet and we did that brilliantly.”