BURTON ALBION 1 EXETER CITY 0

Were you watching, Doncaster? City must hope not...

Exeter City were brought crashing down to earth as their five-game unbeaten Conference record came to a shuddering halt at Eton Park.
After the euphoria of last week's 5-1 hammering of Leigh RMI, the ugly face of inconsistency re-surfaced as City turned in a limp display against limited opposition.

Lacking the creative spark and defensive bedrock that has laid the foundations for a recent revival in fortunes, City will have to improve next weekend if they are to keep alive their FA Cup hopes against Doncaster Rovers.

On Saturday they blasted out of the blocks, suggesting they would blitz their part-time hosts with another whirlwind display in what was almost a comically one-sided opening 20 minutes.

Yet, not for the first time this season, they became the architects of their own downfall by retreating into their shells and inviting a struggling side to spring an upset.

New boss Alex Inglethorpe will know that teams as ordinary as Burton should be put to the sword instead of being gift-wrapped all three points.

But when you commit the cardinal sin of wastefully squandering possession out of defence, the consequences can be painful.

French defender Alex Jeannin was the guilty party, his suicidal taxi pass was cut out by Craig Dudley and his blushes took on a burning complexion as ex-Sheffield Wednesday striker Jon Shaw latched onto the resulting cross to side-foot past Bittner.

It was a bitter blow just three minutes before the break and the misery was compounded when Afful was denied by a last-gasp intervention from Aaron Webster just moments later.

Eight yards out, the winger looked a firm favourite to lift his goalscoring hoodoo this term only to see his stinging drive somehow deflected out for a corner.

Burton's early policy was one of containment rather than entertainment, figuring that if they could weather City's early storm then they could finally end a miserable spell of five games without a win.

Sheldon twice went close, Afful's pile-driver was deflected inches around the post and Devine sent an explosive volley wide as City laid siege to the hosts goal.

Having survived the Grecians brightest spell of the game, Burton enjoyed their most sustained period of pressure during the latter stages of the half. Mark Robins a fixture in the Premiership for a large chunk of his career and still an obvious goal threat must have thought Christmas, his birthday and a significant win on the lottery had all come at once.

Surely the mere presence of a striker who had scored 100 league goals in 256 appearances in the upper echelons of the league pyramid would have fired off a warning shot to City's back-line, who have been so solid in recent weeks.

But the alarm bells were simply not heeded and the master marksman was gifted far too much space in and around the penalty box.

And if it hadn't been for a hat-trick of superlative saves from Bittner, then the former Manchester United star would have sealed the contest before the interval.

Ex-Chippenham Town keeper Bittner has found himself warming the bench for the majority of the season, replaced by rookie Martin Rice. But his towering performance demonstrated a desire to win back his place between the sticks.

Okay, his distribution sometimes lacks accuracy and, on occasions, he needs to take greater command of his box.

But when it comes to the art of shot stopping, few can cast doubt on his ability and at the weekend he was the one bright light in an otherwise disappointing City performance.

Firstly, he leapt to the rescue when Robins shrugged off the attentions of Gary Sawyer only to beat away his rasping drive.

And he had to remain alert again as the 34-year-old punctured City's slapdash defending, latching on to Chris Hall's measured cross.

But Bittner spread himself like a trapeze artist, acrobatically blocking Robins blistering point-blank effort.

And in an intriguing dual, the on-song keeper would later foil Robins for a third time, shovelling his snap-shot away to win his personal battle against the man touted as having scored the goal that saved Sir Alex Ferguson the chop back in 1990.

For all their possession in the second-half, City struggled to engineer a clear-cut opening, their hopes of rescuing a point swamped by Burton's resolute rearguard action.

Danny Clay, a half-time substitute for Andy Taylor, launched an audacious curling effort that whistled agonisingly wide and Sawyer lashed wildly over the bar. But the penetrating thrusts that had remorselessly dumped Leigh RMI on their back-sides seven days prior were largely absent, although Devine went close following an expert swivel and Sheldon shaved the outside of Dan Crane?s post with a scorching 25-yard shot.

Inglethorpe went for broke in the final 15 minutes, hauling off the fast-fading Les Afful in favour of Jake Edwards and switching to an adventurous 3-4-3 formation.

But still there was an alarming tendency to squander possession and pump aimless defensive fodder in the general direction of Flack instead of playing the slick brand of passing football that has sparked a recent renaissance.

The Grecians were left reeling with 12 minutes remaining after being denied what looked like a cast-iron penalty.

Flack burst onto Santos Gaia's pass only for substitute Glenn Kirkwood to stick out a hand and make contact with the ball in the penalty box.
But City have suffered plenty of spot-kick agony this season, having been denied countless penalties both on their travels and at St James's Park.

And their luck was not about to change as referee Mo Matador waved away protests to deal another fatal blow to their hopes of snatching a draw from the jaws of defeat.

"It looked a good shout for a penalty from where I was standing," insisted Inglethorpe.

"The players around the incident certainly thought it was, but it never really happened for us today though we will bounce back."

City were presented with an opportunity to strike deep into stoppage time as they launched one final assault into enemy territory.

But Flack's 20-yard missile was comfortably dealt with to extinguish all remaining hopes of salvaging a point and leave the Grecians six points adrift of the play-off places.