Casper - That was no smash and grab

Last updated : 22 April 2007 By Andy Van Hagen
After watching his struggling side beat title hopefulls Walsall, Bury manager Chris Casper shared his feelings with his club's official website www.buryfc.co.uk :

"I'll be honest with you now, and I'm not just saying this because we did win, but I really did fancy us today. With everything that has gone on recently, we haven't been in bad form and obviously it was party time here at the Bescott today, and you just think - are they happy with winning promotion."

"For the first half, we dominated and obviously they flew at us in the second half, but full respect to Walsall, they are a very good team and they have some good players but fair play to us, I thought we were fantastic today."

"It's wasn't a smash and grab, we hit the post towards the end and missed some good chances. Its very satisfying and I'm so pleased for the lads."

"When Jason Kennedy hit the post, I was celebrating, I thought it had gone in. I think everyone from Bury was celebrating. I can't believe it stayed out. It got a little nail biting towards the end, but fair play to the lads, they soaked up some good pressure and I thought we killed the game off really well."

"Our defending was superb and Andy Parrish was magnificent. You have to remember that he is only 18, yet he shows composure, he shows maturity way beyond his years. Today he was up against Cooper early on and then Ishmael in the second half, who was very quick and young Andy just does not get fazed, he's got a really good future ahead of him, but the back four of Colin Woodthorpe, Dave Challinor, Darran Kempson and Andy Parrish were magnificent."

"Walsall's pitch is excellent and it does influence the way that you play. We played a lot of good things and a lot of good stuff today. It wasn't just lump it forward and hope for the best. We created chances, we got it wide, we got it into the box and we passed the ball ever so well and the pitch was a big factor in that. It will be a lot better when you have a good surface to play on."

"For the start of the second half, they had a really good go, we were under the cosh and we knew that. We played that formation with Tom coming in for Glynn, it was a little bit more withdrawn and gave us a little bit more strength in there. To be fair it worked, sometimes they do work, sometimes they don't, thank fully today it worked."

"When you replace a quality player like Glynn Hurst with a quality player like Tom Youngs, who obviously got the winner as well, then it's not really not really a big decision that you have to make, but leaving Glynn out was a big decision, but when you replace him with Tom Youngs, it takes care of itself."

"Tom doesn't get many, but when he does, they are vital. I remember one against Rochdale last season, and the one at Notts County in the last game of the season and obviously today's could prove to be a massive result for us."

"If Boston had have lost today, then it would be all over for us, but if you're a Boston player or a Wrexham player coming off the pitch today, the first thing they will have asked was how did Bury get on - the answer of they won at Walsall will deflate them. Its deflating and that counts for other teams as well."

"I shouldn't really comment on other teams and stuff like that, but that's a fact. We've dealt with it and other teams still have to deal with it. We still have a big job to do, the season is still not over and we've just said that. The lads said in the huddle after the game before anyone got to them that its important that we stay focussed and its important that we don't waste this result."