Bury FC: December, Undefeated run comes to an abrupt end….

Hi everyone, I hope everyone has enjoyed there start to the new year.

Before i start, just to let you know that I have linked the players so you can check their attributes at any time in the Bury team sheet which i have also added to my posting format. It should give you an idea of who is the main players of this team also. Hope you like it! :-)

Anyway lets continue the story, our undefeated run came to a bad end, lets see how it became a ‘bad’ ending instead of a normal ending.

In our first match of the month we played mid-table Port Vale.

BURY TEAM: Richie Branagan; Tom Lees, Sam Sodge, Marco Teani, Joe Skarz; Ryan Lowe, Marcel Mahouve, Connor Henderson, Robbie Brady; Danny Carlton, Rhys Murphy

With Port-Vale being a mid-table team, I was expecting to beat them, but no way did I think I would lose 3-0, which ended our undefeated run. This enabled Morcambe, in 2nd position at the time, gain 3 points on us.

Next we played second in the table Morcambe who could go top of the table, level on points with us if they beat us. Nobody scored untill the second half, where we took the lead and went on to score another 5. One again, no-way i expected that. A perfect response to the defeat at Port Vale.

BURY TEAM: Richie Branagan; Tom Lees, Sam Sodge, Marco Teani, Joe Skarz; Manu, Marcel Mahouve, Connor Henderson, Robbie Brady; Andy Bishop, Rhys Murphy

Next we played Crewe in another League game. A Rhys Murphy double won us the game in a tight 2-1 win, where Crewe missed a penalty.

BURY TEAM: Richie Branagan; Tom Lees, Sam Sodge, Marco Teani, Joe Skarz; Ryan Lowe, Marcel Mahouve, Ali Fuseini, Michael Jones; Danny Carlton, Rhys Murphy

Four days later, we played Cheltenham. Rhys Murphy, on loan from Arsenal, got on the scoresheet again. He is proving to be an excellent buy for us. Andy Bishop also converted a Manu cross to give us a comfortable 2-0 half time lead. Manu also got a red card in the 49th minute which made the task of keeping on to our lead a little bit harder for us.

BURY TEAM: Richie Branagan; Ben Hoskin, Sam Sodge, Marco Teani, Joe Skarz; Manu, Marcel Mahouve, Connor Henderson, Robbie Brady; Andy Bishop, Rhys Murphy

After this game we had to play 2 games between only one days of rest! Our fitness levels would really be tested. First we had to play bottom of the table Macclesfield. I decided to weaken the time slightly which came back to haunt me in a 1-0 loss! AGAINST THE BOTTOM OF THE TABLE TEAM! Our team didn’t turn up and it was a boring game in all honesty.

BURY TEAM: Richie Branagan; Tom Lees, Sam Sodge, Marco Teani, Efe Sodge; Ryan Lowe, Lolo, Connor Henderson; Danny Carlton, Rhys Murphy

Our second match of the busy Christmas period was against Gillingham. We lined up in a 4-3-3 (W) formation for the first time in the season due to lack of right wingers and fitness problems. We only had Andy Bishop as our only proper fit striker. The first goal came as Andy Bishop converted a cross from Ryan Lowe. We were biting our nails untill Robbie Brady scored in the last seconds of the game to seal the 3 points which got us back to winning ways.

BURY TEAM: Richie Branagan; Tom Lees, Sam Sodge, Marco Teani, Joe Skarz; Marcel Mahouve, Ali Fuseini, Connor Henderson; Robbie Brady, Andy Bishop, Ryan Lowe

After 4 wins in 6 games the table looked like this. We were still top by 3 points and Morcambe, who were very close to us at the start of the month, slipped down into 4th place.

So half way through the season, player tables looked like this; Danny Carlton leads the way as usual but for some reason he is suffering from very poor morale. Maybe because of my harsh team talks at the end of the two defeats in this month.

Anyway, thats it, hope you enjoyed the post, take care, Sayam.