Bury drew 1-1 today away at Irlam to bring the gap down to 1st to 1 point with both teams having played 26. First-team analyst Chris Watts gave us his thoughts on the game
Chris Watts: “Tough one to take, I think in the end we just didn’t take our chances. Especially in the first half we should’ve been about 2-0 up and we ended up conceding from a dead ball whipped into the box which seems to be a reoccurring theme, but we need to be more clinical in front of goal.”
Chris then spoke about the need to turn draws into wins and to try and find consistency during this period, he said: “Absolutely, and I think it was bit more difficult when they went down to 10 men as that killed the game off. I don’t think the ball was on the grass for more than 5 seconds post their red card. There were also just constant stoppages every 5 seconds but its something your going to have to contend with. If we killed the game off in the first half as we should’ve done you don’t run into these issues but their keepers made some great saves and I can’t take anything away from him but I also can’t fault the lads because they put everything out there tonight and it just didn’t come. We’ll take the point, but we know we have to put it right on Saturday and that’s the good part about this league is that we get another chance of going top straight away.”
He than spoke how good it was to have Bobby Carroll and Ben Hockenhull back in the side following their suspensions, Chris said: “Absolutely, now Bobby’s [Carroll] had his suspension because of the red he’s now fully rested and the same for Ben [Hockenhull] also so it’s good to get everyone back and amongst the squad. Hopefully this gives us more options to try and win games with.”
Chris than told us about how the competitiveness and quality of the squad means starting positions are always up for grabs, with him saying “It’s up to the lads, they have to play well to try and keep their shirt and perform well on the day and that is what we need in the squad and that’s what we got this squad for was to try and drive competition. So, they know if they came into the side and did their job they’ll probably be in the squad for Saturday.”
Chris than finished the interview by looking ahead to this weekends fixture against Abbey Hey, he said: “It’s always good to play in front of your fans and the lads really want to perform in front of our fans but obviously they also want to perform well in every game but obviously, when it’s a home game it’s a bit of a special occasion and now we’ve got another chance to try and get 3 points on Saturday and that’s all that matters, picking up points and bettering our form because we’ve got to the point where were even with teams now but now we’ve got pretty much half a season to try and gain as many points as possible.”
