The Bluebirds initially had to come from behind after Jake Beesley had given the hosts an early lead.

A second-half brace from Australian midfielder Alex Robertson put Cardiff in charge, but Lofthouse’s 78th-minute leveller saw their lead at the top trimmed to two points.

“Not really content with a point,” Barry-Murphy said. “We always go for a win and once we got in front we didn’t score again to make that happen.

“I was very pleased with the response to, what by our standards, was a poor first half.

“The players implemented what I wanted from the first moments of the second half and once we got that second goal we started to show our quality and it’s a real disappointment to concede from a free-kick.

“We knew the threat Burton have from set pieces and we felt the best approach was to attack as much as we could.

“The free-kick gets a deflection which helps their player score, but we didn’t create enough quality chances to go on and win the game today.”

Barry-Murphy was delighted for Robertson to bag a brace and turn the game around in the second half.

“We expect players like Alex to arrive in the box like that and show their quality and I was very pleased with Alex’s contribution out there today,” he added.

For Burton head coach Gary Bowyer, it was a deserved point.

But it could have been more with substitute Tyrese Shade missing a golden chance in added time to win it for the Brewers.

“I agree we should have taken six points off Cardiff this season, let alone four,” Bowyer said.

“Tyrese has said to me that he knows he should score but I also think it is a penalty because the defender follows through and wipes him out.

“We got off to a wonderful start. We asked for a reaction after Tuesday night (a late 2-1 loss at Bolton), and we got that, so an enormous amount of credit goes to the players for that.”

Beesley grabbed his 10 goal of the season to give Albion the lead and Bowyer was again effusive in his praise of his main striker.

“It’s an unbelievable finish from Bees,” the Burton boss added.

“The way he has conducted himself – it’s like another episode of the Bowyer-Beesley love in – has been immense. He has put all the noise aside and gone and produced a finish like that, so I am delighted for him.”