"I was disappointed with the result but not with the performance. Bearing in mind we had a lot of players who were coming back and hadn't really done anything for a few weeks, I thought our performance was good.

"I'm really disappointed with the goal. I could see he was going to dive before he dived, it was just that obvious. Unfortunately the quality of refereeing doesn't get any better."

However, he added, "Obviously, Burton are a very good side – probably the best footballing side that we've played and I thought we more than matched them. They had a couple of chances in the first half, other than that I think we had a lot of efforts from distance. And with a bit of luck we could have got something out of the game.

"Unfortunately, when it goes against you that's the way it is. When we went to Wrexham a couple of weeks ago, I was talking to their assistant and he was saying it was the same for them last year – it didn't matter what they did, it always seemed to go against them. We've just got to carry that performance into Tuesday at Torquay and back here for Grays next Saturday and build on that.

"Obviously, we'll have Joe Tabiri back from suspension for Tuesday, and Stefan (Cox) – and then hopefully have Adam Hinshelwood back for next Saturday.

"Sometimes when things are going against you your confidence can drain. But I thought we put in a spirited performance, I think everyone today did their job. Okay, Nigel (Clough) will say his side missed a couple of chances but we had some decent efforts, their keeper made a decent save.

"So I thinks there is life. There were a few there shouting "Keehan out" when we were doing well after 20 minutes. But there's only a few. In the main, they've been really good and supportive. They understand the situation."

And Keehan was phlegmatic about the uncertaintly surrounding the possible takeover of the club, saying, "I can't worry about things I can't deal with."

Keehan said he was hopeful Ollie Rowland's knee injury was not as bad as first feared.

Rowland, who suffered a horrific cruciate ligament injury three years ago, needed oxygen while he was stretchered off with a worryingly similar-looking injury.

But Keehan said, "We're just trying to find out as we speak. We don't think it's broken. They said he's going to 'minors' which suggests it's not broken.

"He heard a pop and one or two other players did. He's had some serious knee problems in the past and he might have just panicked when he heard the noise, I don't know.

"We must keep our fingers crossed and hope he's all right."