Paul Boertien steps off the Burton Albion rollercoaster to chat with skysports.com's Ben Collins.
As part of skysports.com's League Two spotlight, Ben Collins catches up with Burton Albion defender Paul Boertien.
Burton Albion have had many memorable matches during the club's first-ever season in the Football League.
There was the 5-2 win over Morecambe in their first League game at the Pirelli Stadium and the 6-1 thumping of Aldershot in December, while they came from 3-1 down to claim a last-gasp 4-3 win at Hereford last month.
Saturday's game at home to Cheltenham will also live long in the memory - but it is one the Brewers would rather forget.
Leading 2-0 at half-time and 5-3 with 85 minutes on the clock, Paul Peschisolido's men still managed to lose 6-5.
The match was remarkable not just for the fact it was an 11-goal thriller, but because five of the goals came in the last 10 minutes, which included four minutes of stoppage time.
And Cheltenham midfielder Michael Pook had scored just five goals in 151 senior games before Saturday, yet grabbed a quick-fire hat-trick in that frantic finale.
The events even stunned Burton defender Paul Boertien, who might have thought he had seen it all in a 13-year career that began with his senior debut for Carlisle back in 1997.
"I've never played in a game like it before and I don't think I ever will again," he told
skysports.com's Ben Collins.
"It was a bit surreal. After the game, the players and the staff were just shell-shocked. It was incredible how it all happened.
"We were so comfortable at half-time having gone 2-0 up, and we should have gone on to win the game comfortably. Even in the second half we were 4-2 up and then 5-3 up, so we should never have lost a game like that.
"The gaffer had a go at us after the game and rightly so, but like the rest of us, he was a bit shell-shocked too and couldn't understand what happened."
Atmosphere
Burton have done some soul-searching this week at the FA's plush new National Football Centre, which they are fortunate enough to use as their training base.
There were plenty of long faces there Monday morning and Boertien admits it took two or three days for the players to clear the result from their mind.
"It wasn't the best atmosphere at training this week," he said.
"We were all down and disappointed on Monday and it wasn't until Tuesday that we started to get it out of our system and looked ahead to this weekend. I don't think there's any other way you can be when you've just had a game like that.
"We've gone through the video and looked at every goal. Some of them we couldn't have done anything about, at least two of them were unbelievable strikes and one took a deflection.
"But there were a lot of mistakes that led to the goals and a lot of things we could have done better. We defended poorly and conceded goals for fun, and it just wasn't good enough.
"But we've been working on that stuff in training this week and we're confident we've put it right for Saturday."
Boertien was one of the new signings last summer after Burton won the Blue Square Premier to climb into the Football League for the first time in their history.
Founded in 1950, the club have spent much of their existence in the Southern League and also some in the Northern given their location in the Midlands.
Then Nigel Clough became player-manager in October 1998 and the former Nottingham Forest and Liverpool forward sparked Albion's gradual rise into League Two.
In his fourth season they won the Unibond Premier and after establishing themselves in the Conference, Clough steered the Brewers to the 2008 play-offs.
Capable
Last season they claimed a league-record 12 straight wins and after Clough left for Derby in January 2009, they just about hung on to win the title.
It soon became apparent that Burton would secure their League status for another season, yet but for a leaky defence the Brewers could be sitting in a play-off place right now - after Saturday's capitulation, only Crewe and rock-bottom Darlington have conceded more goals than Burton in League Two.
"We've conceded far too many goals this season," said Boertien. "That's been a problem and the manager's tried putting things in place to improve our defensive record.
"Then hopefully we can kick on. We've done all right but from my point of view, I'm slightly disappointed where we are in the league because I think we can actually do better. Had we won on Saturday we would have been right in there (three points off the play-offs) so it was disappointing from that point of view as well.
"There's a lot of games to go and we're certainly not giving up on the play-offs. We've played everyone in the league now and we know we're capable of beating anyone on our day and going on a good run.
"But that's been our problem all season - consistency. We'll win one then lose one, and we showed that again in the space of one game on Saturday.
"Apart from the top few, consistency's been a problem for everyone in this league, though. With so many teams beating each other, teams are still looking at the play-offs down to 14th, 15th place."
The unpredictability of League Two was demonstrated not just by Burton's horror show last Saturday. Chesterfield suffered a shock result too, losing 5-0 at home to Port Vale.
The fifth-placed Spireites won 5-1 at Burton in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in September before beating the Brewers 5-2 in the league the following month and the two sides meet again at the Pirelli Stadium this Saturday.
"We owe Chesterfield one," said Boertien. "They've battered us twice this season and we were poor in both games, so we could do with turning it round on them, and we need a big improvement after last Saturday.
"Chesterfield had won seven out of nine before losing 5-0 at home - that's the type of league it is, anyone can beat anyone, that's why it's so important to get a run going."
Aims
Boertien joined Burton after two years in League One with Walsall and it was an opportunity he relished. As well as linking up with former Derby team-mates Peschisolido and assistant manager Gary Rowett, Burton's proximity allowed him to remain in Derby, where he has lived since joining the Rams as a 20-year-old back in March 1999.
Roy McFarland was placed in charge until the end of last season after Clough was lured to Derby before Burton handed Peschisolido his first opportunity in management, just as they did with Clough.
Boertien was Peschisolido's first signing and this season the 31-year-old full-back has also become a father for the first time.
"I'm a proud dad, I'm loving every minute of it," said Boertien. "And I've loved it so far at Burton. The new gaffer came in, and I knew him and Gaz Rowett so there were some familiar faces.
"I know what they're like, I know how they work, and it was easy to speak to them about their aims and what they want to do with the club.
"They've just got up into the League for the first time so it's exciting times and it's good to be part of.
"From day one, everyone's been brilliant with me and that sums up the club - it's a good, family club. The team spirit's brilliant, we've all got on really well, and that's why we've managed to do all right in the league so far this season."
Peschisolido brought in Boertien, Guy Branston and former Bristol Rovers striker Richard Walker to add some much-needed League experience to a squad which features many of the players from last season's title-winning side.
The likes of Tony James, Aaron Webster, John McGrath, Michael Simpson, Andrew Corbett and 16-goal Shaun Harrad have made a successful step up into League football and Boertien believes they can go from strength to strength.
"A lot of the lads that got us up stayed and signed new contracts, and there's some good players there," he said.
Balance
"The gaffer's brought in a few of his own to make the squad a bit stronger, and I think that mix of a nucleus from last season and the few that have come in has been a good balance.
"Hopefully we'll make the play-offs this season but if not I think we'd give it a
right push to go up next season."
Boertien's career could have been so different if it was not for a string of serious injuries which have restricted him to 217 League appearances over 13 years. He played in the Premier League for Derby and went on to spend eight years at Pride Park but is philosophical about how those injury setbacks stalled his progress.
"I did my cruciate and lateral ligaments in 2004, I came back from that and then had an articular cartilage micro-fracture," he said. "It was two seven-month periods out of the game, one after another, and that was pretty difficult to come back from.
"I was fortunate enough to get back and play again for Derby under Billy Davies when we went up in the play-offs in 2007, but that season I got another injury which ruled me out for three months, so injuries have been a big factor in my career and it's bad luck.
"But I'm also lucky in the sense I've been in the game now for 13 years and it's not an easy game to be involved in when so many people want to play.
"You just have to accept what it is and try to get on with it. I've tried to leave those injuries in the past and concentrate on now."
Having signed a one-year deal, Boertien hopes to agree a new contract with Burton and plans to put all his injury experience to good use when he decides to hang up his boots.
"I've spoken to the gaffer and hopefully we're going to sort out next season as well," he said.
"I'm 31 now so I guess I haven't got that long left and at the moment I'm looking down the route of being a personal trainer or fitness coach. Having gone through all those injuries and rehabilitation I'm quite used to all that!"
