PAUL Peschisolido shuffled his pack to good effect as Burton Albion brought their worst run as a Football League club to an end in the wind and rain at the Coral Windows Stadium on Saturday.
The Brewers looked to be heading for a fourth straight defeat after a gaffe by goalkeeper Ross Atkins had handed Bradford City the lead two minutes before halftime.
But redemption arrived in the shape of substitutes Adi Yussuf, Chris Palmer and Andres Gurrieri as Albion rescued a point from a scruffy encounter in the 84th minute.
After receiving Gurrieri’s pass, it looked as though the Bantams’ defence had been deceived as Palmer’s cross skidded into the far corner of the net.
However, Yussuf claimed a touch and the second goal of his Albion career — to the huge relief of Paul Peschisolido.
Unsurprisingly, the Brewers boss was not too bothered who laid ownership to the goal.
All that mattered was his side had halted their slide down the League Two table.
It was a worthy point, too, as the Brewers replicated the result from their two previous visits to Bradford.
As a spectacle, the game was undeniably lacking in quality and entertainment, but there was a never-say-die attitude about the Brewers that suggested they may have turned the corner that will lead them away from the darkest episode of Peschisolido’s management.
The run of defeats, the fuss over the Brewers boss’s link with the Bristol Rovers job and the Twittergate furore surrounding Jacques Maghoma could have left spirits at their lowest ebb, certainly as far as the current campaign is concerned.
But the recalled Maghoma sported a garish yellow Mohican haircut, presumably as an olive branch to fans and to demonstrate his loyalty to the Albion cause.
And his latest coiffure somehow symbolised a galvanising spirit of determination to put right the wrongs.
Yussuf’s goal may have been streaky in nature, but it was not unwarranted as Albion clawed their way back into the contest after the hammer blow of conceding a sloppy goal in the 43rd minute.
Albion made four changes from the side beaten 2-1 by Plymouth Argyle.
Nathan Stanton replaced the injured Tony James at centre-half and Tom Parkes was given his first outing since breaking an ankle in August in the left-back slot.
Peschisolido also gave recalls in midfield to Cleveland Taylor and bad boy Maghoma in a calculated move to extract the best from the enigmatic midfield player.
The game began ominously for Parkes when he was yellow carded with only five minutes on the clock for a late tackle on Nahki Wells.
It did not help Albion’s fragile confidence either when the subsequent free kick, taken by Craig Fagan, was mishandled by Atkins dangerously close to his line.
Stanton quickly followed Parkes in referee Lee Collins’ notebook for tugging at the shirt of the lively Wells as Albion looked decidedly uneasy.
And there were home cries, perhaps optimistically, for a penalty when Callum Driver bundled over Andy Haworth after the midfield player had proved too strong for the West Ham United loanee.
All of this typified a scruffy start to a contest not helped by a swirling wind and a pitch that had showed signs of cutting up in the warm-up and would only get worse.
Albion had a couple of opportunities to seize the initiative but Taylor’s shot went high and wide and Calvin Zola could not get enough power on a header from Maghoma’s cross to trouble Jon McLaughlin — but at least it was the first on-target effort by either side in the first 25 minutes.
Ryan Austin blazed a 25-yard free kick miles wide of the target after Maghoma had been chopped down by Ricky Ravenhill, which was in keeping with the poor fare on offer from either side.
Albion at least could take comfort from the fact that, after a nervy start, they had silenced the home fans by keeping the Bantams at bay for minutes on end.
But their hard work was undone two minutes before the break after Austin had been harshly penalised 25 yards out for holding James Hanson.
Davies, on loan from Stoke City, took a long time to line up the free kick, but his patience proved worth the wait as Atkins was caught too far off his line and could only flap hopelessly as the ball sailed over him into the net.
With rain swirling around, Albion showed promise at the start at the second half, but a decent cross from Justin Richards went wastefully across the face of goal.
There was a closer call at the other end in the 59th minute when Ravenhill’s snap-shot went narrowly wide after a bout of head tennis in and around Albion’s area before a Ritchie Jones effort was deflected wide.
Atkins then went someway to atoning for his earlier misjudgement when he tipped a Davies header onto a post as City enjoyed their first real spell of sustained pressure.
Albion sent on Adi Yussuf in place of Richards with an hour gone but City could have had a second in the 68th minute as Haworth broke away to provide a low cross that somehow eluded Wells as he slid in at the far post.
Yussuf had a deflected shot claimed by McLaughlin and at this stage, despite moments of promise from Maghoma, it was difficult to predict where an Albion goal would come from as the messy slog continued.
But after the introduction of Gurrieri and Palmer, relief came for them almost out of the blue in the 84th minute.
Gurrieri’s pass gave Palmer the opportuinity to check onto his left foot and the midfielder arrowed in a cross that skidded into the far corner of McLaughlin’s net, apparently without another player getting a touch.
However, Yussuf’s jubilant sprint to receive the congratulations of visiting fans suggested he had helped the ball on its way into the net.
Either way, the Brewers had managed to chisel out a precious point that could yet prove pivotal to their hopes of sustaining a challenge for the play-offs.
