After an 8-0 victory over Longbridge Town extending Bury’s unbeaten run to 21 games Assistant Manager Tim Lees spoke to the club.
Tim Lees: “Probably can’t get much better to be honest, we’ve said a few times it’s a result we’ve felt been coming for a while, I mean the chances that we’ve created in the final third we felt if we were a bit more clinical it’s something that would come, so yeah I thought we were excellent I thought it was the best performance of the season and obviously the score line suggests that but just the way we played I think we needed last to be honest and I think we needed the dip in performance particularly in the first half against Charnock and the second half against AFC Liverpool we needed that to highlight certain areas to the boys this week in training. We had conversations about a few bits around accountability and what we’re looking for and reiterated a few things we wanted in and out of possession that we wanted to do, and I thought we executed everything brilliantly today and the lads were fantastic with the ball they were completely dominant. They kept moving the ball to the final third and the movement and timing of the movement and the connections and we just created that free player all game all over the pitch and I thought the biggest difference was without the ball our pressing was outstanding and continually kept regaining the ball and defending on the halfway line with aggression and it could’ve been a few more, to be honest.”
Tim then spoke about today’s changes to the starting eleven with Lewis Alessandra and Alex Cherera returning to the side he said: “Yeah both have been knocking at the door I think Lewis I think Lewis [Alessandra] has been training well and we’ve been trying to get him back about a week and a half ago as well but he picked up a bit of a niggle in training again so we wanted to be sure, we left him on longer than we probably wanted but we wanted him to get more minutes as obviously, you can’t replicate being out there on the pitch but he was excellent with his calmness in and around the box and his experience and his ability to play that final pass as you saw in the second half with the goal as well so to have his experience back and around the group is massive.”
Adding onto this he said, “Alex [Cherera] he’s great, he’s had a couple of niggles but yeah he’s deserved his start, and I thought he was excellent.”
Tim than spoke about the importance of seeing out a game comfortably after taking an early lead saying “Yeah absolutely we’re looking for consistency in performance for 90 minutes, we know how good we can be in periods within games we have been dominating games and we have created a lot of chances and like I alluded to the other day it’s because of the level we’re at you know your not going to have a high conversion of chances because it’s the hardest thing to do in the game and players who are unbelievably efficient in front of goal they don’t stay at the respective level for long, we’re fine with the chances we’re creating and we understand were going to miss chances but it’s our choice to be calm and to not panic the boys and it’s our job to make sure they keep doing the correct things constantly which we have been doing but that consistency of performance for the 90 minutes that’s what we’ve been looking at and I thought are standards and energy without the ball today was excellent through out the 90 minutes and that’s what your going to need if you want to win the league.”
He then spoke about whether extending DJ Pedro’s loan to the end of the season is an option for Bury
Tim: “He’s added a lot to us, his consistency in terms of his work rate and mindset and his mentality to fight for every ball and it’s something the fans love but again he’s one obviously with his age if we could get him in and he’s got an unbelievable amount of improvement in him as well and because of the attributes he’s got he is an excellent player for this level and we’re absolutely made up with him and hopefully if we can do something for him to get him permanently that’s something we’d like to do.”
Tim then gave us an update on Ben Hockenhull after his halftime substitution for Gaz Peet he said, “No he’s fine, he took a bit of a knock on his calf and because of the scoreline at the time of the game at that point we didn’t want to take any risks.”
Tim then gave us his thoughts on next Saturday’s match saying with the upcoming Macron Cup match set to be a more youthful team he said, “I think Monday is a good opportunity for the young lads the last time they played away at Abbey Hey they were excellent until they got a man sent off it was a real good showcase for them to be able to compete against players of our level. We’ll have a couple of lads involved Sam Coughlan will probably play and Patrick Jarrett will be involved but other than that it will predominantly be the younger lads yeah so, it’s a good opportunity for them and us. It’s brilliant as it gives us some training time on Tuesday and Thursday to prepare for the game on Saturday we’re getting to the point in the season where if we get through the next couple of weeks, we’ve got two sessions a week, and like and we’ve always said when we get that training time together as a group we feel as if that’s where were going to see the best of the group.”
