SHAKERS SHOW SIGNS OF LIFE
WITH two draws over the festive period against Fleetwood and yesterday away at promotion-chasing Bradford, the end of 2016 will fill Bury fans with a little more hope for the New Year.
They still haven’t won a game since September when they defeated MK Dons 3-2 away from home.
But there were plenty of positive signs from a very young side yesterday, and manager Chris Brass appreciates the efforts of all his players, young and old.
He said: “The key is you’ve got to trust them, they will make mistakes, the big boys make mistakes. They will learn, sometimes towards the end of a game it’s not a bad thing to just clear your lines.
“The older boys in my team have got to understand they can still achieve later in their careers.
“They want the youngsters to go on and have a career like they have or possibily even better.”
Shakers’ midfielder Scott Burgess opened the scoring with a delightful lob which wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Premier League,
Brass gave some insight into the youngster’s recent performances. He said: “We’ve seen it in defeats, he’s got an awful lot of quality.
“He’s starting to trust himself and believe in himself.
“He’s got a couple of goals and assists now which is massive for him.” Nicky Law equalised for the Bantams early in the secon half with his third goal of the season. Jordy Hiwula’s powerful strike was blocked by Rob Lainton in the Shakers’ goal but Law was there to drive the rebound home.
The result made it four consecutive draws for Bradford and the 18,000-strong crowd at Valley Parade will be hoping for a few more victories in the new year if they are to achieve their goal of promotion.
Bradford face Northampton Town away tomorrow and manager Stuart McCall said he doesn’t care about the performance as long as his side win.
“In fact I wouldn’t mind a rotten performance as long as we get a goal and win the game,” he said. “I keep using this word ‘frustrating’, but it was again yesterday.
“The second half was far better than the first, in fairness there hasn’t been many times this year where I’ve had to tear into my players, but in the first half we were very poor out there.
“We’ve got the New Year to look forward to.
“We’re still in a position we are pleased to be in and we look forward and positively.
“This season can still be very successful.
“There’s been too many draws no doubt about it.
“We haven’t got that magic wand at the minute where we can change those chances into goals.
“But we keep knocking on the door and hopefully we can start winning.”