Bury won 2-1 on a cold Saturday night over West Didsbury & Chorlton, Manager Dave McNabb spoke to the club to give us his thoughts on the game.
Dave McNabb: “Massive, I think massive, considering the performance against them and the results against them a few weeks back. I think a lot’s happened since then. But yeah, in the shake of things, we’ve only got the last ten games, nine left now. I think it’s a massive, massive point. I’ll quantify the comments. I think West Didsbury are the best side we’ve played this season in the league and what I mean by that is, in terms of the players that they’ve got and the way that they play, in terms of being equipped to do well in the league above, I think if they got promoted, they’d do really well in the league above. I think they’re solid at the back. I think they’ve got a really good mix of different types of players in midfield. Technical ability, legs, work ethic, a bit of determination, and then the top line’s obviously outstanding and got quality all over. So, very, very good side. And I think for our spells today, we’ve made them look ordinary. Obviously, unlucky, I think, when we conceded a goal, it was actually, funnily enough, the only time we got dragged out of shape once, where obviously Mitch’s [Allen] kick and then he’d come back in the second phase and Reese’s headed the ball to give it back on the pitch and ended up off the pitch himself. Other than that, I thought our shape was absolutely outstanding. I thought we probably should have scored another couple towards the end, and I think a 3-1, 4-1 would have been justified and deserved. But we’ll take the 2-1 and we’ll take the three points.”
He then spoke about todays changes to the starting 11 with him saying “Yeah, it was a little bit sort of tactical in terms of the decision making. I thought we rested Rusty [Stepans] last week. I think that was the main reason for Rusty coming out of the side last week. Nothing to do with performance. He just looked a little bit tired and sort of started to run out of legs after 60 minutes. That’s when you can sort of start to tell that someone needs a rest. I think he’s played 44, 45 games this season and his minutes are through the roof. So, I think his performance today showed exactly why he came out of the side last week. I thought he was absolutely outstanding.”
Dave then gave his praises to Josh Gregory he said: “Two man of the match performances, two goals. We know how good Josh is. I think we’ve tried to work with Josh a few times in the past and it’s not quite been right. I think he’s a fantastic player. He’s the glue, one of the bits of glue that holds this group together. There’s a few of them in there now and do you know what? After everything he’s been through in terms of the injuries and stuff, I’m made up for him. No one deserves it more than him. And obviously getting a little bit of applause that’s with the goals as well, that always helps.”
He then spoke about todays MOTM to Lewis Bryne with him saying “I thought he was class. I think that’s probably the best you’ve seen him in a beret shirt in terms of his hold-up play, his link-up play. Dropping him, playing between the lines, getting on the half turn. Really unlucky probably not to get his goal. The shot for the penalty. I mean, he sent everyone to the shop, hasn’t he? I mean, it was brilliant. Yeah, I think he was certainly up there in some of the better performances.”
Dave then spoke about reaching 75 goals scored in the second half with him saying, “I think stats are great and I think you’ve got… I’m really big on data. But I think there’s an element of sometimes it’s the story and the context that makes it a bit more meaningful. So, I know that there’ll be comments around that we’re not good enough first half. But what you’ve got to remember is teams, particularly at Gigg, teams come to Gigg lane and it’s the cup final. So, they are working the nuts off in the first half. They’re trying to stay tight, trying to stay resolute, trying to stop us from playing. Generally speaking, when we keep the ball and we’ve averaged 68% possession for the season so far, they’ll run out of steam towards the second half. And then that’s when the quality shines through and we open teams up and score more goals. So that’s more of the story rather than us not being so good first half. But yeah, I think any stat that shows that we’re doing well is a good one.”
He then also spoke about Reece Kendall who made his Gigg Lane debut this afternoon, he said: “I thought he did really well. He got twisted up a little bit in the first ten minutes on one occasion. I think he sort of didn’t move his feet fast enough and nearly fell over but other than that, he won his headers. He was aggressive defensively. I thought his decision making in terms of when to help it on, when to get it down and play was really good. I think he’ll get better.”
To finish the interview, he then looked ahead to next week’s match against South Liverpool with him saying “Looking forward to it. Like I said a long time ago, I think when we get this group in two sessions a week, you’ll start to see us performing more like we were in the first 10, 15 games when we were on that brilliant run. Obviously, that was a carryover from having two sessions a week during pre-season. Really looking forward to the week ahead. Let’s enjoy tonight first but then wake up tomorrow morning and it’s all about next week.”
