Bury won 2-1 in a close encounter against Stockport Town to send them back to the top of the league. Manager Dave McNabb spoke to the club to give us his thoughts on today’s game.
Dave McNabb: “Obviously pleased with the win, a bit similar to last week. The first half was probably really good, more than deservedly in front by two goals, and probably could and should have been more. Second half, I think our ball retention and the way we’ve kept the ball and built the game has been really poor for our standards. It’s difficult, this is a tough place to come and obviously you look at the league table, it probably doesn’t tell a true story in terms of how good Stockport are and some of the problems they can cause. They play a formation that’s tough to get hold of, they play lots of free players, the movement off the ball is exceptional. For large spells, we let them off the ball, they didn’t hurt us, and our possession stats will show they had a lot of the ball, which was fine because it was a goalkeeper, three centre-halves. As soon as they played behind us, we pressed them well and we won the ball back. Second half, that’s fine to do, but when we win the ball, we’ve got to be better on it, we’ve definitely got to be better on it. Obviously, it’s a nervy last few minutes with the stupid goal and we’re crying out for a clean sheet at the minute, but they had to work hard and for large parts I thought we were comfortable out of possession, but another win and we move on to the next one.”
He then spoke about whether it’s a concern the Shakers have gone nine games without a clean sheet, with him saying “Yes, massively. I’d rather win 2-1 every week than not win the game and get a clean sheet. It’s something we’re trying to work on, we’re doing a lot of work defensively. Obviously, there’s been some changes across the back line, and we were forced into two changes today, which obviously doesn’t help. It’s 2-0 up, we’ve got to score one of those chances. We’ve had three guilt-edged chances in the second half, 3-0, the game goes to bed, we can sit in. Obviously, we’ve had to change Nicky [Adams], we’ve had to change ours. Two enforced changes in the back four doesn’t help and then come in a little bit more disjointed and obviously you can see it towards the end.”
Dave then spoke about being forced into two changes with both Nicky and Aaron Chalmers coming off in the second half, he said: “I think Nicky is probably looking at a couple of weeks maybe with a bit of a hamstring pull. Very, very slight. He made sure he didn’t over-push it any further and Aza just got a bit of a tight calf and Achilles. So, he should be OK for Tuesday, hopefully.”
He then spoke about new recruit Aiden Walkers performance today with him saying “I think Aidan’s a quality player. I thought he’d done well today again, coming on in difficult circumstances where we’re sat in and being hard to break down. More than capable of playing anywhere across the back four, which is good. Trying to keep repetition in terms of the players in the side and the squad. Fantastic footballer, really good defender. I thought he settled in well today. He’s only had a couple of training sessions with us. Really good player. I think he can add a lot to the group between now and the end of the season. So, yes, really looking forward to working with him.”
Dave then looked ahead to this Tuesday’s clash with FC Isle Of Man after the game’s postponement at the start of January, he said: “Absolutely. I think they’re a very good side. When you look back at some of our disappointing results this season, and obviously you notably go to the defeats and draws, I think when you look back over certainly the draws, that was probably one of the only two, possibly three, where you got really good points. Really good point there. I thought we were, again, really good first half, and second half was a 50-50 game. I think when we were over in the Isle of Man, I thought they scored early in the second half and defended really well. We obviously got the last kick sort of equaliser. So, that was one of the games where you come away thinking, do you know what, it’s a 50-50 game, good point, let’s get out of here. So, I’m sure they’d like to come and do the same to us on Tuesday. So, it’s up to us to make sure we impose ourselves a little bit more than we did today. We’ve got to be better on the ball. I think if we turned the ball over as many times as we did today on Tuesday, it would be really tough. But, looking forward to it.”
