Bury held on to go 7 points clear at the top of the table after a 1-0 win over South Liverpool, Manager Dave McNabb spoke to the club to give us his thoughts on the game.
Dave McNabb: “I think last week I came out and said that the all-round quality of the game was exceptional for the level of football we’re at. I think today’s probably been the complete opposite, possibly one of the worst games of football we’ve seen this season. I think it was so stop-start, I don’t think the officials had a great day in terms of it was quite itchy and quite tenchy and too many free-kicks, constantly stopping and restarting the game. Fair play to South, I think they really organised, they had a game plan, I think they were dangerous on the counter-attack from set-pieces. But I think we’ve made hard work for ourselves, I think we started the game really well we should’ve been 2 or 3-0 up I think, and then second half, there’s some of the chances in the second half as well. It’s tough because sometimes when you’re in the position you are, particularly at this point in the season, it’s all about three points but its fine margins the end they’ve had a shot at the 95th, 96th minute, if that goes in the top corner we’ve dropped points from a position where we must have had 20 attempts on goal and probably three or four missed from within two or three yards. So, pleased with the win, it’s another game, another game shorted off, seven points clear, massive positives there, no injuries and we’ll just move forward and strike it off.”
He then spoke about todays changes to the starting 11 with Bobby Carroll coming in to replace Connor Pye who dropped to the bench with him saying “Yeah, so I thought Rusty did really well last week, obviously playing in the central areas and then in the second half played from wide, he looked really dangerous. When you’re coming on some of these pitches, they’re quite tight and it’s quite tough to play on at times. I think trying to build the game is massively important and Bobby’s probably the best player in the squad at that. So, to get Bobby back in the team, I think it was just a little bit of a tactical change and obviously I thought I’d admit Bobby was probably the best player on the pitch.”
Also, then speaking about how the change allowed Cam Fogerty to play higher up the pitch, he said “Yeah, I think obviously when you’ve got the likes of DJ [Pedro] who really holds it up really well, having someone running off and either fair man runs without the ball or running with the ball to try and drive and create space, then Cam’s really good at it. He’s played multiple roles throughout his career, so I’ve got no worries about him playing a little bit further up advanced. He can play as a 6, he can play as an 8, he can play as a 10, so again having someone like that in the squad, loads of energy, loads of quality, just really helps us to try and set up slightly different games.”
Dave then spoke about his triple change when there was 20 minutes left to play, he said “Fresh legs, I think we looked a little bit tired and, to be honest, a little bit shaken up. I thought we looked like we were going to potentially drop and drop. We were getting a little bit deep, making a few little mistakes in possession, so it was a bit more of a rocket to try and make the changes and try and make sure that we held on.”
To finish the interview, he looked ahead to the next two fixtures both being played back at Gigg Lane.
Dave McNabb: “Yeah, I think so, and look, our performance wasn’t great today, but the training, I thought we looked really good defensively, the shape and the unit work that we’ve been doing this week leading up to the game is really good. Obviously, we need to work on a few more attacking principles, maybe finishing from a yard out and being a little bit more comfortable. But we’ve got a big week ahead and then, like you said, we’ve got two home games, we’re not going to think about the second one, I think it’s all about next Saturday now and we’ll start planning for that tomorrow.”