Flitcroft is all smiles despite a late blow
BURY manager David Flitcroft refused to point fingers after watching his side suffer a late Swindon sucker-punch in a game they dominated for the first hour.
Second-half substitutes Fabien Robert and Anton Rodgers scored a goal apiece for the Robins late in the game to cancel out Tom Pope’s header and a Danny Mayor strike for Bury.
It was hard to bear for a Gigg Lane crowd who paid an emotional tribute to Neville Neville, the club’s former ambassador and father of ex-Manchester United stars Gary and Phil, who passed away last week aged 65.
But Flitcroft believes his team did well to go toe-to-toe with a dangerous Swindon side.
“At 2-0 up we were cruising and giving a topquality team real problems,” said Flitcroft.
“To only be sat here with one point is disappointing but I have got to take the positives out of the 60 or 65 minutes we were outstanding for.
“I don’t want to get drawn into that negativity about what could have been.
“Swindon manager Mark Cooper has carried on his good work from last season.
“I saw his side tear apart Bradford last week so it just shows you where we are trying to get to.
“Just maybe a little bit of naivety has cost us the two points at the end of the day.”
Bury responded to a minute’s applause for Neville before kick-off by making a blistering start.
Full-back Joe Riley put in a pinpoint cross from the right to find Pope, who buried it with a towering header in the fourth minute.
Leon Clarke then hit the post with a penalty he won midway through a half dominated by the Shakers.
Any fears they would be made to regret that missed opportunity looked to have been erased when Mayor stroked home a superb shot from the edge of the box early in the second half.
But Robert halved Bury’s advantage on 74 minutes when his mis-hit shot found the bottom corner.
And Rodgers, watched by his dad, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, equalised with a sweetly struck 25-yard free-kick seven minutes from time that sailed into the top corner.
Swindon boss Mark Cooper said: “I think when you go 2-0 down after half time and come back to draw 2-2 you have to be happy.
“I’m a little bit frustrated by the fact that, if we had stayed patient at the end we might have created one more good chance and could have won the game.
“But we wasted half the game.We probably got the shape a little bit wrong, but we have come back, drawn, got a point away from home and we would have settled that before the start.”