Barker praise for 'football clever' Cregg
10:10am Thursday 22nd March 2012 in Bury FC By Nick Jackson
PATRICK Cregg has modestly shrugged off the plaudits from manager Richie Barker for his accomplished performance as Bury’s holding midfielder in the 0-0 home draw with Scunthorpe on Tuesday night.
The 26-year-old former Arsenal trainee has been something of a fringe player for the Shakers this season, but with captain Steven Schumacher out due to a hamstring injury and Peter Sweeney suspended for one more match following his sending off at Carlisle on March 10, he has taken his chance.
“He’s football clever,” said Barker of the Irishman. “When you ask him to do something, he understands what you are talking about.
“He is also a tidy on the ball. Someone who starts at Arsenal as a youngster must have something about them. After all Arsene Wenger doesn’t drop many clangers.”
For Cregg it was just a case of doing Barker’s bidding.
“The manager wanted to make sure we competed, first and foremost, and I think, personally, at any level, if you do that you’ve always got a chance,” he said.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to do this consistently until the end of the season.”
Cregg must now be in the box seat to continue his midfield roll alongside Mark Carrington and Giles Coke at Preston on Saturday, but he is taking nothing for granted.
“I don’t know if I’ll be playing at the weekend,” he said. “It’s the manager’s decision, but I’ve done what he asked of me, which was to compete and work hard. If you work hard you’ll make a living in the game – that’s what I was told when I was a 16-year-old.
“At Preston there will be a big crowd and we can go there and get a platform.
“They’ve got good players there, so they will come and play. Once we match them and compete I’m sure we’ll have a chance, and they will be thinking the same.
“If we can defend like we did against Scunthorpe we’ll have chance. I don’t think our goalkeeper had a save to make through the whole game.”
Comments(2)
Eileenshakers
says...
3:12pm Wed 28 Mar 12
y knackered from playing too many games and completely confused by what they are supposed to be doing on a football pitch.It all adds up to a lack of success.It's ok Richie keep harping on about how small we are and that we are over achieving by being in this league but does he accept that he could have done a better job when placed in the top 10 earlier this year?.We had 31 points at the turn of the year having played 23 games (half distance).Now he have claimed 12 points in 16 games.I think if a better coach had come in we would now be challenging for the play-offs which would have been incredible.If you at Rochdale and what they achieved last season 9th position could and should have been achievable.Good luck to the lads on Saturday just look at our record against Tranmere at home and believe.
nomoresurfin says...
6:47pm Sat 24 Mar 12
rprise within two two minutes we'd fallen behind to a deflected shot from the edge of the box,the sort of speculative effort that Cregg had prevented happening with his diligent defensive screening work.When Cregg went off who was supposed to replace him at the back of the midfield? I presume Carrington was delegated but he proceeded to run around like a headless chicken for another ten minutes before being replaced by Harrad.Thankfully on this occasion young Lateef spared the manager's blushes with a deserved equaliser despite only being given five minutes playing time,but if Barker continues to make major tactical **** ups like this one the Shakers will surely be relegated.Hopefully Cregg will retain a starting place next week alongside Scumacher and the returning Sweeney but I wouldn't bet on it as Barker's selection criteria seemingly involves putting all the players names in a bag and pulling eleven out at random.