The dustcart well and truly arrived at Bescot Stadium yesterday, with one the poorest performances of the season at home from the Saddlers.

Quite what it was, it’s hard to say. They didn’t look as if they had one foot on the plane for their holidays and seemed quite up for it, but a possible mixture of the pressure of the Championship being in their own hands and, certainly, the fact that the team fighting to stay in the League just wanted it more put paid to the day. Let’s face it, Bury fought like tigers.

Everybody seemed to have an off day, even the Manager, who mistimed some of his substitutions. Ince was reasonably commanding of his box and had little to do in terms of saves, but he also looked hesitant on a couple of occasions. Westwood was his normal reliable self (and did produce the best cross of the game in the second half, put out for a corner just as Ishy was about to pull the trigger and Taylor did OK at left back. The emergency pairing of Gerrard and Fox was, however, a complete disaster as Fox looked at sea all afternoon, even after being swopped with Taylor, and Gerrard was beaten time and time again by perfectly straight balls in the first half, one of them leading to the comic goal, when he had ample time to hoof it clear, but, instead, headed it onto the Bury forward’s head, from whence it rebounded into the net without the player knowing much about it.

In the midfield, Keates played very well and Dobson also did well, up until he was sacrificed to go to a very attacking 4 3 3 and then a 4 2 4, but Harper looked a little out of sorts and Cooper, back from injury, started OK, but lost it after a few minutes (and, it has to be said, the first heavy challenge) and was replaced at half time by Demontagnac. Ishy? Started like an express train and looked like getting us back into it at least on his own, but then slowly faded as Bury doubled (and even, at one point, trebled) up on him and, when he did get clear twice late on, his lack of composure meant he failed to deliver a telling cross. Darren Wrack had little time to have much effect.

Butler worked and worked, but Benjamin was never going to be the answer in the second half, playing with the strong wind, and Sam, who looked threatening, should have been bought on much, much earlier.

Keates, probably rightly, got the sponsor’s Man of the Match. If we’d have been having a non Man of the Match, it would have been too close to call, but I’d have given that to Fox, narrowly from Gerrard.

Lastly, congratulations to Bury. That was their ninth away win of the season, the same number that we have achieved. The players yesterday certainly played as if their jobs were on the line.