Bury must start scoring ‘sooner rather than later’ is they are to avoid relegation, claims Bury caretaker manager Ronnie Jepson.
The Manchester side’s narrow 1-0 League Two loss to Portsmouth means they are without a win in eight games and sit just above the relegation zone on goal difference.
Jepson was pleased with the team performance but stressed that players need to be more clinical in front of goal.
“How we didn’t get something out of the game, I’ll never know,” he told BBC Radio Manchester.
“When those chances start going in, we will be a decent team but it’s got to be sooner rather than later.”
Portsmouth’s Bondz N’Gala’s decisive header came after the giant centre-back rose highest to guide Ricky Holmes’ corner into the net for his third goal of the season.
Bury, who sacked Kevin Blackwell last Monday, will be disappointed to come away with nothing as they enjoyed the majority of possession and chances.
Despite multiple surges towards the Pompey goal in the closing stages, substitute Anton Forrester dragged their best chance wide and Danny Mayor narrowly missed the target with a late strike.
“We were on the front foot from the off and you saw the sigh of relief from their staff afterwards. Guy Whittingham was almost a bit apologetic,” Jepson said.
“This is a great place to come and they’ve got a good crowd behind them. Our boys showed fantastic spirit and it’s just not dropping at this moment in time.”
Shaun Harrad, however, maintained that the team could take plenty of positives from the game, despite its end result.
“We just can’t believe we were on the end of a defeat,” the striker told the Bury FC website after the game.
“We’ll look to move on in time for Tuesday but I think we worked well today and our changes worked well.
“We had a great week in training and for me personally it was great to be back out.”
Image courtesy of Bury FC via YouTube, with thanks.
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