Shakers Blog

For a few moments last weekend, it appears that Bury would be able to get important points that would see them into the play-offs by the skin of their teeth. This is because the team had won two consecutive matches. They were aiming for a third straight win, but they came unstuck after suffering a 2-1 loss at the hands of Cheltenham Town. Clive Platt opened the scoring for Bury after just 16 minutes. This early goal appeared to take the wind out of Cheltenham, as their heads dropped almost immediately.

Rather than building on this advantage, but Bury let the lead slip after conceding an equaliser through Vincent. The lead had lasted for just two minutes before Cheltenham had equalised. The killer blow, though, was to come in the second half after the home team secured the winner through Harrison in the 82^nd minute. Flitcroft said after the encounter that he was disappointed with the performance of his players more than anything. He says that the players did not show any intent of having come for a win.

This put them at a severe disadvantage from the start of the match. Flitcroft says that even a draw would have been an acceptable result for the team, but this defeat means that they remain a distant 17^th.

“We didn’t show enough intent he told http://www.iloveliverpool.org.  “We need to be ruthless and relentless in front of goal. As soon as a team scores you’re at your most vulnerable and you have to lock the pitch down. We didn’t do that. Then it’s no good just passing the ball and moving it well in the middle third if you can’t hurt teams. A draw would have been an acceptable point for us, so there’s a tinge of disappointment. We should have left with at least a point, I told the players that, but we’ll learn from it,” said Flitcroft.

Bury have been struggling against relegation throughout the whole campaign, which resulted in the sacking of manager Kevin Blackwell. His replacement David Flitcroft has been given the chance to improve the fortunes of the team, who are just two points above the relegation zone. The signs are looking promising for the new manager, as his team has managed to victories in the last five matches. Flitcroft is hoping to build on this good run of form by strengthening the team during January. The club has already brought in five players during this window, but they have also released five players as well.

Flitcroft managed to convince the board to release Gareth Roberts, who has made the captain by previous manager Kevin Blackwell, in the last few weeks. He says that there is no place for sympathy in this profession, as he attempts to rebuild the squad in his image. The moral boosting two victories over York and Hartlepool United have been followed by two matches without a win. This even included the 4-0 thumping at the hands of Chesterpool. However, the defence managed to pull themselves back together in the 0-0 draw with Burton Albion.

The club will take on Accrington Stanley in the league encounter on Saturday. Accrington are just one point above them in the table.

“I have made my promise to the chairman and the board that I will attract as good a player as I can to Bury. We are getting a lot of things right but it has been a relentless four weeks of getting players out and in. You don’t get pleasure out of moving people on. They are great professionals and you have to say bye to them, but they have to move on with their football careers,” said Flitcroft with one week left in the transfer window.