Boss Gary Rowett admitted he had to take the brakes off his Burton side as they charged to their third straight victory in League Two.
Albion came from behind to record a 3-1 win on Wednesday night - sentencing York to their first away defeat of the season in the process.
"To be honest, I take some of the blame for our first-half performance because I said to the lads before the game that I didn't want them going stupid going forward," said Rowett. "But I thought we just held off and put the brakes on, which I think was my fault. At half-time I took the reins off a little bit and urged the lads to have a go and see if we could make something happen."
Patrick McLaughlin put the Minstermen in front following a defensive error after 10 minutes but goals from Lee Bell, Calvin Zola and Robbie Weir gave Burton victory.
"I was disappointed with us in the first half because we didn't play with our usual energy," said Rowett. "But maybe that worked in our favour in the end because we had a little bit left in the bank.
"We started battling for the first ball and we started to get the ball down and played in the right areas. As the game wore on, I thought Calvin Zola and Matt Paterson up front made things happen for us."
