Matt Taylor proud as Exeter fight back to draw with Burton on his return to club

Matt Taylor said he was proud of his Exeter players as they fought back to earn a 1-1 draw with Burton on his return to the club as interim manager.

Taylor was confirmed as the Grecians boss for the final 13 games of the season, just over three years since he left the club to take charge of Rotherham. And he saw substitute Josh Magennis cancel out a sublime Udoka Godwin-Malife strike for Burton with an equally-impressive powerful header 17 minutes from time.

“I am not an emotional man but walking around at the start left a lump in my throat,” Taylor said. “I have always had a good relationship with the fans and the way they welcomed me today was fantastic.

“It was one of those games where we were excellent, but we just needed that final bit of quality. I am immensely proud of the players.

“I thought we were a bit sluggish to start the game and they physically moved us in that first 10 minutes or so and we maybe had a bit of the weekend in us, so to come back as we did and create the better moments and play as well as we did in the second half, bar another goal, makes me proud.

“They don’t know me and I don’t know them yet, but I have said to them that I won’t change the style much. That was on show tonight, but I want to add certain elements, a bit more excitement and electricity and ask a few more questions of the opposition in the final third.”

Burton manager Gary Bowyer was happy with a point for his side and said: “It was like watching the LA Lakers! It felt like a basketball game, but I think you always have to respect a point, especially away from home.

“We had to deal with the emotion of the return of Matty Taylor and that was something that obviously wasn’t in the plans yesterday, but I thought we dealt with that really well because we were superb in that first five or six minutes… but we have to be ahead with the chances that we had.

“Then we struggled a little bit with their formation for a bit, but we got to grips with that and then it was like a basketball game. Brad (Collins) has done brilliantly for us and recovered from Saturday, which we knew he would with two good saves.

“They have had some corners, we had some brilliant transitional moments and there have been some brilliant blocks from both teams at both ends, so overall, we have to really respect the point.

“It’s not the sort of game managers enjoy, but I have four hours back on the coach now to watch it back!”