The final word on Wanderers' victory over the Shakers as bwfc.co.uk rounds up manager, player and local press post-match reaction
Wanderers made it five wins and five clean sheets in a row as they beat local-rivals Bury on Monday night.
Rounding up the manager, player and local press' post-match reaction alike, bwfc.co.uk offers the final word on the match...
How bwfc.co.uk saw it...
Wanderers secured the derby bragging rights with a comfortable victory over neighbours Bury at Gigg Lane on Monday night.
Phil Parkinson’s side took the lead in the 13th minute of the clash with Zach Clough winning a penalty and converting it himself – a feat which he repeated ten minutes into the second half to double the Trotters’ advantage and his own tally for the evening.
There were even chances for the Whites to extend their lead inside the closing stages, but it was irrelevant at the final whistle as they made it five wins and as many clean sheets on the spin.
We’re very pleased. It was a tough game and we knew it would be. We showed real quality on the ball and created some good chances.
All round it was a very solid, hard-working team performance and we deservedly got the win.
We’ll enjoy the victory because that’s important. There’s always that added pressure away from home, especially when you’re live on TV, and even more so when it’s a local derby as well.
This was a big game tonight and we handled the occasion really well.
People will look at us and know what we are all about. I think defensively we’ve been really solid in the last five games hence the reason we’ve got five clean sheets.
From back to front we are really solid as a unit. We have really dangerous players within our team, so if we stay defensively strong we know we’ve got a chance of winning the game.
There is confidence oozing out of the squad at the moment, but we are not going to get complacent.
The manager said it before the game, go out there with a confidence but not an arrogance. We showed that we can play at times, but also showed that we are up for a fight as well.
We’re second now and it’s an incentive for us to stay there. It’s exactly where we want to be and it’s up to us to make sure we stay there.
Moments of genuine calm were few and far between at Gigg Lane last night but Zach Clough produced two of them to end 87 years of hurt for Wanderers.
Having won both penalties – both hotly contested from a Bury point of view – the 21-year-old proved to be the coolest customer on a frantic night to end one of the Whites’ longest-running hoodoos.
Phil Parkinson’s side are back in the top two and have now won five straight games without conceding a goal. Once again their performance relied more on exertion than excellence but when a moment of quality was needed, the little striker was never far away.
Wanderers don’t want for local rivals. In the Premier League days they tussled with the Manchester giants, and they kept tabs on Blackburn and Wigan even after their downfall began. In League One the Whites had a couple of appetisers against Rochdale and Oldham – but this was the main course.
How you miss an atmosphere as rich as it was at Gigg Lane, the rivalry seeping out of every stand. But of course you need the football to go with it, and after Parkinson admitted his side had under-estimated a couple of local opponents this season, they most certainly were not going to make the same mistake again.
Even Bury's biggest attendance for 18 months could not help to stop the rot as they suffered derby-day blues against Bolton.
After 17 years of patiently waiting in the wings while their greatest rivals took the Premier League by storm, the Shakers had the chance to earn bragging rights live in front of the Sky Sports cameras – and 8,007 fans that packed out Gigg Lane.
The tension between clubs had been brewing for decades, this was the night the town was waiting for.