Flitcroft’s fighting talk fires up troops
BURY’S ‘ultimate fighters’ were hailed by boss David Flitcroft as he revealed a Conor McGregor-inspired half-time teamtalk led to a remarkable fightback at Walsall.
The shaky Shakers appeared out for the count at the interval, 3-0 down to goals from Kieron Morris, Erhun Oztumer and Simeon Jackson.
But they hauled themselves off the mat in a remarkable comeback thanks to strikes from Leon Barnett, new signing James Vaughan and Danny Mayor.
And Flitcroft praised his troops for drawing on the spirit of UFC star McGregor, a man who never knows when he is beaten either.
Flitcroft said: “I talked to them at half-time about Conor and the reason why he is so good at what he does.
“He’s got so much belief in himself but the only reason for that is he knows he’s worked harder than any other UFC fighter. And when we showed that commitment to each other, we completely dominated and overpowered Walsall.
“The first half didn’t represent us at all but the performance in the second half was outstanding. I was just disappointed we didn’t go on to win.
“But the lads deserve massive credit because they could have gone under but refused.”
Walsall boss Jon Whitney was left punch-drunk by his side’s collapse. “I’m very disappointed. It feels like we’ve lost the game,” he said.
“The goals came from a corner, a free-kick and then our throw, them just putting balls into the box, and we didn’t cope with it.
“The first half we could have been four or five up but and I’m not going to make excuses – for 15 minutes it just wasn’t good enough.
“We can’t let 15 minutes undo all the good work we’ve done but that’s all you think about after a result like that.”
Morris drilled Walsall in front after six minutes and Oztumer’s 25-yard punished lax Bury defending to make it 2-0 eight minutes later.
When Jackson poked Andreas Makris’ cross home from close range just after the half-hour, it looked game over.
But Shakers keeper Ben Williams produced two excellent saves to deny Jackson before the interval, and Bury took full advantage as Barnett and Vaughan scored from set-pieces to reduce the deficit in the first five minutes of the second half.
Mayor drilled home from 15 yards to bring Bury level, and they could have won it late on but Vaughan flashed inches over.