I've written before about my ever increasing doubts over Dean Smith's credibility as a manager. What I witnessed this afternoon has me absolutely certain that we'll go down unless big changes are on the horizon.
The team more or less picked itself today and aside from Butler's absence, we had what is probably now our first choice midfield and front two. The subs however left me scratching my head in confusion. How can Smith go from defending his decision not to have a goalkeeper on the bench, to having a goalkeeper and three strikers amongst his five subs? The last sub, Taundry, might be a jack of all trades, but is he really going to change a game? I get the feeling Smith simply has no ideas in place as to how he can turn a game in our favour.
We started the game brightly with a couple of half chances coming our way, but it wasn't long before ex-Saddler, Peter Sweeney, picked the ball up 25 yards out and hammered a dipping drive over Grof and against the back of the next. It looked to me like Grof was caught a bit too far off his line, but of greater concern was the absence of any attempts to block the shot.
The Shakers started to knock the ball around with purpose, and Amoo on the right wing gave Sadler a tough time. We couldn't get hold of the ball in midfield and, true to form, the ball didn't stick up front at all.
Thankfully, Paterson's quick feet on a rare attack won us a penalty which Macken calmly converted. We then had a spell on the ascendancy with Wilson forcing two good saves from the Bury 'keeper and a long range effort from Chambers dipping narrowly wide. Both sides would have been fairly satisfied to go into the break level, although it was Bury who had played the better football.
I've got no idea what happened at half time, but from the break onwards, we were absolutely destroyed all over the park. Bury's second goal came soon after the break as another unchallenged long range effort found its way beyond Grof.
Bury's passing and movement pulled us apart piece by piece and we reverted back to long ball tactics up to a completely anonymous Nicholls and a frustrated Macken. Paterson's flashes of skill did offer some attacking threat but his inexperience showed on a number of occasions as he failed to deliver that quality final ball.
Schumacher was the next Bury player to be given the time and space to pick his spot from the edge of the box before their fourth came on the break as they outnumbered us at the back.
I was pleased to see Bowerman come on and get his first senior goal but that was the one and only positive to take from a woeful second half.
The main worry for me isn't that we lost and it isn't that we conceded four goals. It's that man for man, Bury looked so much better than us all over the pitch, it was embarrassing. Smith has promised to ship out those who aren't up to it and now is most certainly the time to do it. Perhaps Deano too needs to follow his inept group of players out via the back door before he enters a relegation battle he won't win.
By: Rob Jones