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Shakers rattled and rolled

It has not been a very good week for Bury. As I told you last week, we drew our FA match with Cardiff and travelled down to Cardiff City for the replay. We played hard and well. We hit to goal posts on a couple of occasions, but it was 0-0 at the end of 90 minutes, so extra-time was played. At the end of the first 15 minutes it was still goalless. In fact this remained the score until the last 10 seconds of extra-time, when Cardiff managed to get one in. We were devastated. We had played our guts out and had survived almost 120 minutes, only to lose it all in the last 10 seconds.

And then, a couple of days later, we were told that our manager, Neil Warnock, had got the job of Manager of the First Division team Sheffield United. Neil was born in Sheffield and has been a United fan all his life – so being offered the job of managing them was like a dream come true. All of us at Bury wish him well.

Now we await news of who is going to replace him. And in the meantime, all of us at Bury are hard at work: training daily and preparing for our next game, another away match at Mansfield Town next Tuesday. We know it will be hard, but we believe in ourselves and are keeping a high team spirit.

In our first game since Neil Warnock left for Sheffield United, we played Gillingham and though we failed to score any points in our away match, it wasn't as bad a performance as some might have expected. After all, Bury are not really at their best away from home, and the trip down to Prestfield Stadium against the third place team was not too inviting.

A cold, blustery day greeted the Shakers, which is what we are popularly known as, and both fans and players and even the teams spent the majority of the first half coming to terms with the harsh conditions. Our squad for the game comprised a few young players who were in the side because a few other, more established members had sustained injuries.

I started my first game of the season after making a number of substitution appearances. My colleagues Forrest, in the midfield, and Matt Barrass, at the back, showed great character and played virtually a full game. Ryan Souter also got a look-in when he replaced Woodward after 26 minutes.

Both the sides were cautious to begin with, though the majority of the possession went Gillingham's way. But they were unable to convert this into any notable chances as we worked hard to contain them. It wasn't until late on in the game that the first, and only, near miss for Gillingham happened. A long-range effort from Nicky Southall skimmed past the post. At the other end, we managed to make more of whatever possession we gained, and a few through balls to Barnes left him with just Bartram to beat. But on both chances his shot proved just enough for the Gillingham keeper to handle. I made what were later described as "some good runs" that "looked promising", but was unable to create any strong opportunities.

In the second half, Gillingham changed their tactics, using three substitutes within five minutes of the restart and this seemed to work. The players who were brought on seemed to gel together but still the chances created were usually scrappy affairs, shots from long distance which could only be classed as half chances.

The breakthrough came in the 62nd minute, when we were tiring a little at the back but this was perhaps understandable since we were constantly kept on the defensive. Some neat passing between Gillingham goal-scorer Edge and Southall allowed the attack to get behind our backline. Edge took his one-on-one chance with style and wrong-footed the young Kenny.

With this advantage, Gillingham stepped down a gear and although you might have been forgiven for thinking that this would let Bury in, it didn't. Avdiu, who replaced me just before the goal, despite looking lively, was kept well in touch by the Gills defence. When the ball did get into the danger area it was dealt with efficiently enough to keep the Shakers out and give the home team the win.

I’m looking forward to our next match and hoping for a different score line!