[choirboy]

A really disappointing result tonight against Bury.
I thought that a draw would have been a fair result.
The play in the first half was fairly equal but Bury had three real scoring chances from which they should have had at least one goal. Their centre half put a header over the bar in front of the Clayton End from about five yards and they also had two shots hit over the bar. We didn't really have a shot on target during the first half.
The second half was a total turnaround and our players took charge of the game.
We had far more possession and moved the ball down the wings well with Pierro doing some great work on the right. I thought that we could have got the ball to him even more as he was really outplaying their left back.
We had loads of chances to score but without a real centre forward with the "knack" in the box it was looking unlikely that we would get the goal that our overall second half display deserved. Inevitably, we got 'sucker punched' with nine minutes to go. Having blocked one cross we left a BIG guy clear on the far post and well....that was that!
On the POSITIVE side........Buxton had a good game for me but needs more match fitness. Coneely was probably our best player. He was cool under pressure. His positional play was excellent and he didn't waste a single pass. Atkinson was steady as usual. Procky played his heart out and Luke Joyce got stuck in and played further upfield in the second half where I would prefer him to be all the time. Shay McCarten was busy and was a bit unlucky near the end when he got into a good scoring position but the ball got stuck 'under' his feet! As I already said Pierro did well on the right wing.
On the disappointing side ......... It is a bit difficult to understand why we didn't bring Carver on with twenty to twenty five minutes to go. He was only brought on at 87 minutes played. In those last three minutes plus the four added on he did ok and had he been on earlier I think that he could have put a lot of pressure on their defence. Their number 5 had been booked and he would have been at real risk of an early bath had Carver been allowed to work on him! Of course the number 5 should have been booked earlier but that apart I thought that the referee was quite good. I also thought that the young lady running the line on the Whinney Hill side did a good job too.
I looked at the BBC stats for the match and we had 17 shots on goal but only four were on target with no goals scored. Bury had ten shots on goal with three on target and one scored. If we had the same 'conversion rate' as Bury then we would have won 3 - 1.
We are clearly missing John O'Sullivan who seems to be having a 'holiday' at Rovers!
We need a Centre Forward. I don't know what the situation is with Tom Aldred but if he is staying then I would put him 'Up Front' alongside Marcus Carver.
This was the biggest match of the season so far for us.... but now the next match on Saturday against Northampton becomes "THE BIGGEST MATCH OF THE SEASON".
Keep the Faith everyone.
ON STANLEY ON