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Is it pronounced BURRY or is it BERRY? As a Yorkie, to me it is berry but obviously it is spelled Bury. Unfortunate perhaps for the local RSPCA there who once were photographed promoting their work in the local area with a massive sign above them saying, "HELP BURY ANIMALS".

One thing is for sure, it's in Lancashire so it's bound to be grey, dull, depressing and mortifying.

They have a caretaker manager now in the shape of Ronnie Jepson which may give them an extra impetus, certainly judged on their 2-1 win at Wycombe last time out it appears it already has. Kevin Blackwell was given the boot a few weeks back for being sh*t. Alan Knill take note and make sure it doesn't happen to you.

I've never been to Gigg Lane nor indeed Bury but I shall be there on Saturday and despite it being in Lancashire the bonuses are it's a new ground and a new place and also it's not in or near London.

It will be a tricky game and I will be hoping the lads back up the 1-1 draw with Pompey with a good performance here. Given it is Knill's ex stomping ground I would expect him to have us all fired up but as he is as limp as a bag of pre-packed salad in the reduced section in the supermarket then I'm not taking anything for granted. I fully expect us to look lost, create little especially if Hawley is playing and eventually succumb to incessant Bury pressure. Think Burton away but just with Bury scoring a bit earlier.

A 1-1 draw with Pompey doesn't signify a revival or change in fortunes. We have a bloody hard game in prospect at Gigg Lane and we just don't have the team understanding to enable us to play how we would like so it will be somewhat disjointed. We could squeeze a 0-0 if we're lucky but they will score and so i'm going for a 2-1 loss. Once again we find ourselves needing to score more goals than the opposition which is kind of the whole point of football, but we just can't do this therefore we won't win.

I'll be there and singing the lads on from the back of the stand and hope we will take a few northern based Gulls to add to the Devon- based nutters. Looking forward to the match so much as ever and COYY!!

The key question is, Nico or Cruise this week?

Don't hang about Andy!

Hawley is awful, one of the worst strikers I have ever seen, he must be dropped for the game next Saturday. Nicholson needs a place on the bench, but Cruise has been pretty mediocre when he's been on the pitch. We need to start getting the ball down, using the width with the wingers we have, using pace and try and pass the ball to a player with a yellow shirt on.

I can get them up quick now i'm not writing reams and reams of crap Danny!

Now i'm just writing a few sentences of crap.

Echo your sentiments. Hawley is an expert finisher but we need a CONSISTENT finisher so sadly he has to go. Bury will be a tough nut to crack and I think it will be a lot harder up there than some may think.

I'll take a draw now. Onwards and upwards.

dannyrvtufc4life wrote:Don't hang about Andy!

Hawley is awful, one of the worst strikers I have ever seen, he must be dropped for the game next Saturday. Nicholson needs a place on the bench, but Cruise has been pretty mediocre when he's been on the pitch. We need to start getting the ball down, using the width with the wingers we have, using pace and try and pass the ball to a player with a yellow shirt on.

Hawley worked his nuts off for the TEAM today or did you not see that ???? Helping out in defence, winning tackles and holding the ball up against some bloody big defenders.

I've seen him do that on all 5 of my away games but sadly as a main striker it's not enough. Howe did this also but would score goals, Hawley just doesn't score. I am 100% appreciative of his team work and effort but he is a striker who doesn't score. It's like having a defender who gets in on everything but who will never contribute towards a clean sheet.

At his current rate he will have scored 6 maybe 7 for the season as a main striker.

Whats the point in trying to explain the bleeding obvious ? He helped to create Chapples goal today. Who says he is the "main" striker ? Is there such a thing ? Its a team game and he makes his contribution to that in many ways that go unnoticed. I don't give a feck who scores for us. In the situation that we are in it means everybody puts a shift in and he is doing that in ways that contributes to the team.

Hawley was very good yesterday. Criticism of Cruise is a bit like criticising David Cameron for being a hopeless batsman, it just isn't fair because that's not his specialism. Cruise is a left back, not a centre back. He isn't tall enough to be a CB, hence he's not looked so good there. As a LB and a footballer in general, he knocks Nico into a cocked hat from 20 paces.

Matt.

We'll agree to disagree again Dutch but I take your point. Hard work and effort is the least I expect and for a striker he has to top that of with goals. For a midfielder he has to top that off with creativity and the odd goal, for a defender he has to top that off with keeping clean sheets same as the keeper.

Having a striker that works hard but doesn't score is fine if he creates a shed load for oncoming midfielders to score. Bodin has no goals, Chappell is quality and will always score, Cameron has no goals, Azeez has a couple mainly due to his own goos work, Mansell and Harding haven't scored, Benyon hasn't, Ball forget about, and so on. So clearly you're idea of team work isn't quite working as well as it should where Hawley is concerned.

Take last season, in a more negative side how many goals did Howe score and he did the same job? Nearly 10?

Whilst I agree that Hawley's lack of goals is a concern I would also say that we don't exactly create a mass of chances for him. I would imagine Hawley thrives on crosses into the box and that's not something we are delivering on a regular basis. Our wingers struggle to beat a full back and get a decent cross in, and until we sort our continued Injury problems and are able to put a settled team out for 4-5 games in a row I think we will struggle to create chances from the flanks.

We seem adept at creating chances by playing intricate football through the centre and whether that plays to Hawley's strengths I am unsure, however if you look back to the Northampton match, Hawley was central in the build up to both of Chapell's goals. I think he performs an admirable job for the team but because strikers are based by and large on how many they notch many see Hawley as a big disappointment. As has been stated by many his hold up play, his strength, his knowhow were all exemplary yesterday, he does not look disillusioned or especially short on confidence, which is normally the most noticeable thing you see about a striker struggling to score.

I remain hopeful that once Knill can field his preferred 11 uninterrupted for a run of games, and we add another dimension or two to our game, and perhaps add in a settled strike partner into that equation too, we will start to create more chances per match. I hope Hawley can go on a good run, his hard work is not earning him his just desserts at present.

Yeah what he said.

I have said since the season began that Hawley is a top quality finisher but like Ben says we don't create any chances for him. So if that's how it is to continue then he shouldn't be starting. I do have some sympathy with him but again it is down to Knill to see that his tactics (whatever they might be!) aren't getting the best out of Hawley from a scoring perspective but he hasn't seen that yet because he has neither altered the way we play nor dropped him.

Dutchgull wrote:
Hawley worked his nuts off for the TEAM today or did you not see that ???? Helping out in defence, winning tackles and holding the ball up against some bloody big defenders.

That's great, but he's a striker. I don't want to see him helping the defence out, he's a striker and should be scoring goals, winning the ball and passing to players in yellow, he doesn't do that.

He is one of the few experienced players we have so he is having to help the younger lads in that team, if that means helping in other ares of the pitch then so be it.If you cant or wont see that then I am not going to bother trying anymore get my point across !

That makes sense but it doesn't address the problem.

With Bodin injured who's playing on the wing? I've liked Chapell when I've seen him but Cameron has looked a bit lost. Cruise to start ahead of Nico please. Genuinely think we'll win this. Sometimes a blind dog can sniff the right arse... 0-1, McCourt to score.