Dino Maamria was full of pride after masterminding Burton’s survival, which was rubber-stamped with a 1-0 victory at Lincoln on Tuesday.

Gassan Ahadme’s instinctive finish, with 11 minutes left at Sincil Bank, secured the Brewers’ Sky Bet League One safety.

After ending the hosts’ six-match unbeaten run, Maamria said: “I can’t tell you how proud I am of this group of players.

“We had one aim when I came to the club and that was to avoid relegation and stay in the division – and we’ve done that.

“It wasn’t the prettiest of games, but it was all about the three points. You’ve got to remember how much this means to the club.

“We’re really pleased to stay up. To beat Lincoln, who have been brilliant at home this season, is great.

“We have a couple of games left and we can really enjoy them now. But we want to look towards next season as well.

“What a time for Gassan to score. I’m really pleased for him and it’s one of those moments he will remember.”

Imps’ boss Mark Kennedy admitted the game was a terrible spectacle for the neutral.

He said: “I thought it was a horrible game. I didn’t enjoy it. We played our part in that. That’s not a criticism of Burton.

“I thought in the first half we played some good stuff with a couple of decent passages of play.

“We lost the game because one of our players didn’t do his job from a set-piece. It’s as simple as that.

“They’re the toughest goals to take as a head coach because you pride yourself on those things.

“We’re usually quite good at defending corners. I believed that at the start of the game, we were the best in the league at that.

“It’s human error. We’re not robots, so we as the staff are here to help people, coach people, develop people. And going forward the player who didn’t do his job properly will learn from it.

“I don’t think we worked their keeper enough. In the second half, I thought we were far too direct. I thought we lacked the character and bravery to play when we should have.

“To be fair to Burton they slowed the game down, they broke everything up and we struggled to get momentum.

“The only time we looked like scoring was when we were 1-0 down. By that point, it was already too late.”