Bury won 1-0 this afternoon away at FC St Helens, Defender Aaron Chalmers spoke to the club to give us his thoughts on the game.
Aaron Chalmers: “Yeah, very tough. The pitch didn’t help us at all, to be fair. You can’t really play football on that pitch. But this time of the season, it’s not about the performances, it’s more about just the results. We’ve come away with 1-0, the Keep have made three or four top-class saves, to be fair. So, could have been more, should have been, but 1-0 will take it and move on to next week.”
He then spoke about what its like being back in the starting 11 for the first time since Christmas, he said: “Yeah, obviously, I was away for two weeks when I got married and on my honeymoon. I had a little niggle last week that wasn’t nothing serious. Obviously, I got involved today, I was lucky enough to start. But yeah, the squad we’ve got, even if one of us is injured, one of us has niggles or suspension, there’s a full 18 to 20 lads who are more than comfortable to cover any position that we’ve got. We’ve got two or three lads in every position. So yeah, if I play or I don’t play, I’m just here to support. I’d rather play and sit on the bench because I’m not the best person to sit and watch. But yeah, we’ll get on with it and whatever happens, happens. But yeah, I’m well happy to play.”
Aaron then spoke about the squad and what its like playing in a back 3 “Yeah, we’ve adapted to be fair. When I went away, like I said, we adapted and went to a three in the back, maybe conceding a bit too many goals than we’d like to. We’ve gone to a three and I thought we’ve been comfortable to be fair. We’ve had one or two scares here and there. Obviously, I wasn’t here last week at Barnoldswick. I think the three at the back gives us more defensive cover. I do like to command and boss my players about, so it gives me the chance to do that. But I think with the solid three at the back, it gives us a bit more licence to use Russie as a left wing-back and Beto to get forward more, to join in to them forward players, as Cam’s been doing very well in the ten and Lewis and DJ do what they do anyway. So, I think going forward, we’re pretty solid with the three. If it’s me playing Reece [Kendall], Aidan [Walker], Louis [Jeanne], Gaz [Peet] when he’s in, I think we’re very comfortable and we can adapt. If it’s not working as a three, we can jump to a four. It’s not really a problem; we’ve worked on it in training. Everything comes pretty easy to us at the minute. So, yeah, a three at the minute, maybe a four next week, who knows?”
He then spoke about keeping another clean sheet this season “Yeah, of course. A clean sheet to a defender is like scoring a goal for a striker. That’s what we value. Our priorities are keeping clean sheets, especially as Mitch has done. Not just the back three, to be fair. No, the back four, five, six-ish. But today, we’ve kept another clean sheet, but it’s come working from the front, from stopping them long balls to the big nine, pressuring constantly, never letting them have a second on the ball. But in this league, clean sheets in this team will win all day. We’ll have 10, 12 to 15 chances a game. We’ll score three or four. Not today, because the keeper’s done some great saves, but yeah, clean sheets for us as defenders are pretty much everything we ask for.”
Aaron then gave us his thoughts on todays opposition, he said “They’ve got people who are good at what they do. They’re very direct. They play to the nine, they play off him, they’ve got runs in behind. And when you give them time, they do try and pick that pass out and try and play that ball in behind. But I thought we nullified it today. I thought we were very, very organised in the back as a three, then as a five and Bobby sitting. I thought Josh Greggory was different class again. Yeah, he’s got to pop the pitch and possibly should have scored. But yeah, they are a threat at what they do. They’re very good at what they do. But again, we said we’ve nullified them. They’ve hardly had a chance. So, we’ll take another three points on to Saturday.
He then looked ahead to next weeks fixture against Pilkington with him saying “You don’t really worry about them. We just concentrate on us. I’ve heard a few things of Lower Breck and Ramsbottom winning. If we win every game, it doesn’t matter what they do. So, we’ll go into that game full of confidence, like we have been for the last six, seven weeks. Play our game, it’s on a 3G. Yeah, it’s not as good as ours, but we’ll just go there, turn up, be professional and hopefully, I’m confident we’ll come away with another three points.”