Greg Abbott on the late equaliser
United manager Greg Abbott spoke to us at full time at Gigg Lane having seen his team grab a late equaliser against a hard working Bury side.
He said: “We expected Bury to come at us and the tempo they had in the first half was unbelievable. They threw everything at us and we said at half time that there was no way they would be able to keep that up for 90 minutes.
“We had to be patient and we had to defend properly, and we had to earn the right to play our game. We got that in the second half and in the end we think we deserved to come away with something. It wasn’t the prettiest game to watch but we’ve seen the lads roll their sleeves up and work hard for each other. We have to pat them on the back for that.
“Kevin [Blackwell] is a good coach and he knows the game. There is a real work ethic here now and Bury will win games with the way they approach things. I’ve seen them a couple of times recently and they are going to pick things up with the way they are playing.
“We obviously want to keep clean sheets but there was more in the way of determination and steel to our defending tonight. Bury got the ball forward quickly and we had to put our heads in and put our bodies on the line to make sure we came away with something.
“I thought the response after Saturday was excellent. We didn’t turn up against Notts County and that stung everybody. Tonight we have battled and we have gone back to doing the type of things which will help us to push forward. If a team isn’t going to let you play your game then you have to dig deep and earn the right to do it. We definitely did that against Bury and we can go away feeling pleased.
“The save at the end shows the character Mark [Gillespie] is. We felt he made a mistake in the way he committed himself for their first goal and that pulled us out of shape a little bit. He dusted himself down and made an excellent save to push one over the bar near the end, and then he has stopped their man on the edge of the box when they probably felt they were going to seal the game.
“We then broke and Joe [Garner] has put the ball into the back of the net, so it shows how important everybody is in terms of getting results and points. We’re going to make mistakes at every level of the club but, if we do it with honesty, and if we show the spirit to put it behind us, then we’ll be fine.
“Hopefully we can kick on from here now. We haven’t been pretty and it hasn’t been fast flowing football, but we have shown that we are prepared to do what we have to do to get a result. It’s another tough one on Saturday at a club with another new manager, but we should go there in good spirits with this one fresh in our minds.”
