Flitcroft’s Bury must Shake off opposition
BURY manager David Flitcroft says his side must learn to kill games off after suffering an almighty scare against Lancashire rivals Accrington.
Bury captain Jim McNulty was sent off in the second half for a second yellow card with 20 minutes left but the Shakers still made it four games unbeaten.
Bury were behind in the 19th minute when Kai Naismith, the subject of a failed transfer bid from Bury two weeks ago, cut in from the right hand side and curled an effort into the back of the net.
But goals from Danny Rose and Danny Mayor ensured the home side scraped home.
“I think in the second half we saw a better performance from most of our players,” said Flitcroft.
“We’ve got to finish the game off and we had a golden opportunity to do that but we didn’t. I was delighted with the way they dug in for the 20 minutes when we had ten men and they couldn’t break our defence down.
“The second yellow card is a soft contact and both players have fallen down so the two decisions to book McNulty, does the referee have to make them? It probably sums up the performance from the referee.”
Former Rangers man Naismith had an opportunity to add a second for Stanley 15 minutes after his opener but was denied by a goal-line header from the back- tracking Pablo Mills.
The clearance was perhaps the turning point in the game as the next minute Bury were level through Rose. Tom Soares cut the ball back to him and he placed it in the bottom corner.
A change in formation at half-time by Bury allowed Mayor to push further forward and it was the winger who got Bury’s winner.
He beat two Accrington defenders before curling an effort into the top corner from 25 yards. McNulty’s red card came eight minutes after Mayor’s winner after he became tangled with James Gray on the halfway line.
But Accrington manager James Beattie was pleased with the performance of his players. “There were some tremendous performances today, both individually and collectively, and everything went to plan,” he said. “We did our homework on Bury, we had a game plan and I thought the lads stuck to it magnificently.
“One of the most pleasing things for me was the reaction to the goal that Bury scored in the first half.
“I thought the lads reacted magnificently to it as a goal against can rock you but we went straight back at them and created two more good chances. We could have come into half time 3-1 or 4-1 up.”