Nigel Clough says Burton Albion's confidence is "as low as it can be" at the Pirelli Stadium after another home defeat.
The Brewers slipped to a 3-1 defeat to Queens Park Rangers on Saturday afternoon , registering their ninth home defeat in ten games in the process.
There was hope that the 0-0 draw with Norwich City before the turn of the year could spark a run of form at home, but it was the same old story at the Pirelli yet again.
QPR pressed Albion all afternoon, forcing a number of mis-placed passes and long balls - with the build-up to Conor Washington's 74th-minute strike that put Rangers in front coming from Burton losing the ball in the centre-circle.
And for Clough, that was what did for the Brewers. "Yeah, that's it," Clough said when asked about whether the Rs' pressure led to mistakes.
"And when you haven't won at home for donkey's years, or whatever it is now, then that all comes into play as well."
"Confidence is as low as it can be at home, despite the draw last time out.
"One point out of 30 at home? It doesn't matter the size of the crowd, size of the club, size of the ground, anything.
"When you've got that sort of record, you're not going to be very confident.
"They played exactly as we expected them to play and exactly as we told the team that they would play.
"With energy, in your faces, closing down, not giving you any time to play, and then they are a threat as soon as they win the ball."
Clough was forced into an early tactical switch, with the back-five becoming a four-man unit.
Kyle McFadzean pushed further up into midfield, with the Brewers adopting a 4-1-4-1 system.
This stopped QPR after an early period of domination, but with McFadzean expected to see much more of the ball in midfield it left Albion exposed on the counter-attack.
The Brewers lacked quality in midfield, but Clough was adamant that formations and tactical switches weren't the issue - but the malaise that has set in at home was.
"That's something we had to adapt to," he added.
"We mention it before games that if we have to change, this is what we'll be doing.
"We had to change the formation because we were being outplayed early on, so we changed that.
"It's not ideal for Kyle, especially at home.
Burton Albion 1-3 QPR
"I think he can do it better away from home, but at home, it's more difficult when you are trying to go forward and then you are vulnerable on the break and QPR can exploit that."
"But it's not about formations or anything like that, it's just about the players doing better at home than they are doing at the moment."
