United boss John Sheridan gave us his reaction to a hard-earned away victory at Bury shortly after full-time on Saturday as he looked back at what had been an action-packed game.
“I’ll take a one-goal victory done in that way all day long,” he said. “Bury are a good footballing side who are in decent form. They’ve been scoring goals and causing teams a lot of problems, so it’s a good result.
“Obviously they had chances, but we defended really well. I felt we stood off them a bit too much in the first half, but we started to get into the game more in the 15 minutes leading up to the break.
“More than anything, and I’ve said this to the lads in the dressing room, I’d like us to believe in ourselves a little bit more. We have players who can keep the ball and pass it around, but we were giving possession away too cheaply for the first half hour or so.
“That’s where we need more cuteness and know-how. Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of what they’ve done but I also get frustrated, because I know they’re miles better than what they’ve shown. Good players do the simple and quick things all the time and they take care of the ball.
“We do need to do that side of the game better and I’d like us to be braver and better on the ball. I’m not being harsh when I say this, but in this league you might get away with making the odd silly mistake. If you want to play higher or if you come up against better players, you don’t get away with it.
“It’s the daft errors and wrong decisions which put us under pressure in this game and we have to get rid of them. That’s not me being overly critical, I just want us to be a good team and to be pushing to get out of this league. That’s why I’ll keep telling the lads what they need to do better.”
Speaking about the reaction the team gave him from the disappointment of the result from the previous week against Tranmere, he told us: “That’s the biggest thing to come from the game for me. I think it’s three times we’ve done that now and it’s a good sign in a team.
“You don’t have to come and play great in every game, but it you keep picking up results you won’t go too far wrong. I don’t have to ask them about the work ethic, ever, because that’s something I know I’m going to get it. Everyone has worked their socks off and it’s made it a really good win for us.
“From 10 or 15 minutes before half time until we went down to ten men we started to look a decent side. To repeat myself, it’s the decision making in key areas where we need to be cuter and better.
“They made life difficult for us, at times, but we kept our discipline and we kept going. Nicky Adams was putting great quality balls into the box so we had to defend properly. He just makes everything look simple, with great delivery from both feet.
“Our lads had to take care of that but defenders and keepers are there to keep clean sheets. Sometimes you’re there to grind a result out, and that’s what we did. I felt comfortable when the crosses were coming in that we’d deal with it, but there was a lot of them and it needed us to be defending well. It’s good for Adam Collin and the defenders that we got a clean sheet and it’s a big plus for the team as a whole.”
On the late sending off for Jerry Yates, which will see him serve a two-game suspension, he commented: “I’ve had a word with the linesman and the referee and Jerry has said something he shouldn’t have said.
“If he has said what they say he’s said then I think he deserved to get sent off, because you can’t be doing that in the game today. I’m no perfectionist when it comes to keeping your mouth shut, but there are some things you just can’t say.
“I’d like to think it’s a learning curve for him, because he’ll miss games, but, like I’ve said, if what the referee is saying is right then he just has to take the suspension. Things will happen in games going forward, like this has happened in this game, so someone else will get an opportunity off the back of that.
“Jack Sowerby got his chance to start with me leaving Ashley Nadesan out of the team, and I’m not afraid of making changes if I feel it will get us the results. With that decision I didn’t want us getting too overrun in midfield, so that’s why I put him in there.”
With 849 members of the Blue Army in the away stand, there was certainly plenty of smiles come full time as the players went across to thank them for their fantastic support.
“It’s great when you get a good following like that to send them home happy,” he said. “I’m chuffed to bits we got the result for them. The players have performed for the fans, and the fans really got behind them because of it, especially in the last ten minutes when we were down to ten men. It’s great for everyone involved because there’s nothing better than winning.”
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