Views Of The Opposition: Bury

How’s your season been so far?
TC: On the whole, poor. Started badly. Sacked Graham Barrow and appointed Chris Casper as caretaker boss. Appointed CC full time manager after a few decent results and then things picked up for a little while. Everyone was optimistic and we picked up some more good results especially toppling Wycombe for their first league defeat of the season. Then Simon Whaley, our top scorer, was sold to Preston and we failed to hold on to Danny Reet, who was on loan from Mansfield and had bagged four goals. We then slumped and started conceding goals left, right and centre. The when we started to tighten up at the back we couldn’t hit the net ourselves. The signing of Kasper Schmeichel on loan from City, following injuries to the first and second choice keepers, was a great move and he has proved to be a great asset.

Dave: Overall, a disappointment. We had a poor start and made the right decision in sacking Graham Barrow. We had the usual honeymoon period under the new manager, Chris Casper with notable wins against Wycombe (ending their long time unbeaten record) and Leyton Orient. However with the loss of key players in Simon Whaley and the failure to sign Danny Reet and allowing him to slip through our grasp to Mansfield saw us drop deep into the mire. Recent performances have been better and I think we will have a half decent end to the season.

What?s your current form like?
TC: Still not scoring enough goals and were not creating chances up until last Saturday’s derby win against Rochdale when we should have beaten them much more comfortably than 2-1. At least we have made ourselves more difficult to beat with only two defeats in the last ten (one of which you probably saw!)

Dave: Patchy. Drawn quite a few games. Recent win against Rochdale has to go down as the best performance since the Wycombe game.

Are you staying up?
TC: I am confident we will. It will be really nervy over the next few weeks but if we play anything like we did against Dale and the fans get behind the team, there is no reason why we cannot survive

Dave: Yes.

Key players to look out for on Saturday?
TC: A certain Jon Daly, currently on loan from Hartlepool. Lewis Gobern, on loan from Wolves. Saw Gobern for the first time last Saturday and hope he can reproduce that form in his time with the Shakers. He is a pacy winger, was very direct and scored a good individual goal too. Oh and Schmeichel between the sticks.

Dave: Tom Youngs up front and recent loanees Lewis Gobern and Ian Ross on the wings. Tom Kennedy is also a damn good left full back.

Any injured players that are missing on Saturday that might help us?
TC: None as far as I am aware

Dave: None that spring to mind. Dwayne Mattis might be struggling but I doubt he’d have started anyway.

What did you make of the Stockport support when we played you a couple of weeks ago?
TC: Excellent. Great scarf too!

Dave: Fantastic. Made a lot of noise and really spurred your team on. Which is what they desperately needed at that time.

What did you make of the Stockport team?
TC: To be honest, just as poor as we were on the night, the only difference being you took one of your chances. A mate of mine (City fan) came to the game with me and all through the game we laughed about Liam Dickinson, my mate describing him as being ‘Like Bambi on ice’. We both agreed that it was inevitable then that he would score a winner!!
Also I have noticed you do score a lot of goals late on in games such as at Gigg.

Dave: Not the worst I’ve seen at Gigg Lane this season, but by no means the best. Not much between the sides, as the result showed in the last meeting.

How many fans will you bring?
TC: Not sure. I don’t get to many away games. At a guess I would say 1,000 but who knows.

Dave: 1,200 hopefully

Prediction?
TC :Stockport are a bogey team for Bury but I am confident that if we can play again the way we did last Saturday we can put that right and maybe sneak a 2-1 win.