Bury won 4-0 over Padiham with a dominant display as they looked to close out the season, Manager Dave McNabb spoke to the club to give us his thoughts on the game.
Dave McNabb: “I think so. Probably somewhat up in one way, which is outstanding. Everything, the warm-up was the best we’ve had all season. The intensity at the start of the game, first half, brilliant. 2-0, blew them away. Could have been more, should have been more. Second half, even better and then you add in the noise coming from the sidelines. It was actually enjoyable listening to them. It’s a shame that the game was going on at times because it was just so intimidating. It’s so intimidating. Look, them being our 12th man at times, got us over the line in tough games. Today was one that he could probably enjoy a little bit more in terms of the performance and the results. We haven’t done anything yet. We haven’t achieved what we set out to. We’ve got two big games, and we need to go and try and win both of them.
Dave then spoke through the two changes to the starting 11 with Bryan Ly and Connor Pye coming into the 11, he said “Obviously, we know Rusty’s [Stepans] picked up a bit of a hamstring injury last week, so he wasn’t available for selection today. So, Conor’s been chomping at the bit really to get in. He’s been a little bit unlucky that Rusty’s been playing so well. So that was a no-brainer and then the second one, we just felt that having a different type of movement and different options from the top line in terms of the way that they set up. So, we’ve done our homework on Paddy for today. Look, it worked. Bryans again, he’s had a tough spell in terms of form, had a bit of a drop in form. But form’s temporary and class is permanent, as they say. So, he’s worked hard the last few weeks. When he’s come off the bench, he’s made big impacts. And look, he deserves his chance, and he’s took it today.”
Dave then spoke about his tactical changes throughout the season with him saying “Yes, so I think it’s about having the fundamentals in place and the philosophy, like you said. We wanted to try and make sure we played a little bit more than what we had done for the spell. I think we’ve been solid. We’ve almost made sure that the back line was defensively solid and then tried to work our way forward. So I think you’re starting to see some of that now. In terms of two number 10s, two number 9s, they’ve got the freedom to play rotations. So there was no set formation when we set it up today. It was around having the back line set, the midfield set, and the rest. Go on and express yourself and enjoy yourselves. Attacking flexibility is something that we’ve seen all season in terms of players in different positions.”
Dave then spoke about the importance of having the full squad as they head into the final games “It’s massive. You can’t win things. You can’t compete at the top of a league with 11 good players. You do need that squad of 17 and 18. That’s what we’ve been fortunate enough to have here. The lads have bought into it, and I think that’s why you’re seeing spells where whether you’re talking about Tyler [James], whether you’re talking about Reece [Kendall] at times, Josh Gregory, Bryan Ly, they’ve all spent time on the bench. They’ve all spent periods on the bench where the forms dropped and whatever, but they stayed bought into it. They stayed working hard. They’ve been listening. Then sooner or later, you get your chance, and then it’s down to you to take it and look at the squad and the togetherness in the group just through the roof at the minute. We asked them today to be brave. We asked them to go and be brave and enjoy themselves, and I think that’s got to be the message for next week.”
Dave then spoke about the return of Will Callaghan to the side with him saying “We’ve been watching Will from afar. He’s been playing really, really well, obviously with Rusty being injured and unavailable. We need to make sure we’ve got options on that side of the pitch. Connor hasn’t played as much as he’d like, as we said before, so we’re just worried about whether he’ll be able to get through the 90, but Connor was outstanding, and Will was really good when he came on as well.”
Dave then finally looked ahead to next weeks clash with Cheadle away at FC United “I think we’ve got to go and win the game next week and put ourselves in a really good position. The full focus this week is going to be on a really tough game. It’s an away game, neutral, whatever you want to call it. Cheadle have got the way that he sets them up tactically. They’ve got a way of playing that’s quite awkward and quite difficult to adapt to, so they’ve definitely got dangerous players. We just need to make sure that we’re up forward and make sure we’re planned and prepped and ready to go, and if we play like we do today, no-one’s going to stop us.”