League Two Predictions 2007-8: 17th Place

Bury

Last Season at a glance

21st in League Two

A second half to the season slump almost had catastrophic consequences for Bury as they came perilously close to dropping out of the Football League. However, a six game winning streak in October and November was enough to provide them with the buffer required to ensure they kept their heads above water. Was a close run thing though.

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We keep hearing that Chris Casper is a bright young manager, and he's probably both bright and young, but neither of those qualities automatically make you into a football manager. And there is certainly pressure on Casper this season to start repaying the faith he has been shown over the past two years.

Like previous managers behind him, Casper has had to do the job with both hands tied behind his back at times, and no doubt he'll feel the frustration that for the first time that Bury have a level playing field to compete with thanks to the Nugent transfer and whatever success is achieved this season, it will be Alexander who will get the credit.

This will be Casper's third season "in charge" and he has work on his plate to ensure that he doesn't go down in history as the manager who played an ineligible player in the FA Cup and the man who signed a brand new contract having not won a game for seventeen matches.

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We don't like Keith Alexander. We never have done. We don't like the way he operates. We don't like the style of football that he plays. We don't like the way he starts making things up about what he has and hasn't seen during football games when he talks to the press after matches. And we don't like the way he tucks his trackie bottoms into his socks.

But we'd be lying if we said that Keith Alexander was a bad manager. He's definitely a good manager at this level and will do well for the Shakers. Back at Northwich he made a good name for himself, and the only criticism you can label at him for his time at Lincoln is that they kept on losing in the Play Offs. There's many a side would take that each season.

The polite way of putting it is that he gets results. It's certainly an ugly way of doing so, but when you've spent the past couple of seasons in a constant relegation battle, you take what you can get.

And as for who is running the shop, it's no surprise to see former Alexander players and coaches hot foot it to Gigg Lane, and to see a chance in tactics to Alexander's preferred 5-3-2. We expect to hear air raid sirens coming from the Gigg Lane main stand by the time of our visit.

The new signings provide a great deal of optimism for Bury supporters. They may have been a little later than most clubs, but they have took significant steps to strengthen their defence and have done so successfully in my opinion.

Morgan is a class act, and whilst Futcher will have his off days, but combined they will be a whole lot tougher to score against next season. We don't know a right lot about the lad from Halifax but he was an early signing for them, and they got him out of his contract with the Shaymen to sign for Bury.

They'll have the added experience of Alexander to call upon next season. As we mentioned above, he's got a very good record at this level, and is undoubtedly a major reason behind the decisions of Morgan and Futcher to sign for the Shakers.

You can picture the scene already. Half time comes, with Bury losing, and Casper's blasting his players, and the likes of Morgan and Futcher start glancing up at Alexander who is stood in the background. Alexander simply shrugs his shoulders and gives them one of those "I know" looks. Next thing its meetings between senior players and Alexander with regards to Casper, and with it any authority that Casper has gets evaporated immediately.

Casper's already had issues with senior players in the past, there's no denying that, but he's manager to ensure that he retains in his position, and the Bury board have backed him well in that respect. But with another figure, perhaps a more senior one, for the players to liaise with, it won't be long before the dressing room is lost.

That a worst case scenario? Possibly, but the partnership between the two of them is a forced one, and not one that comes across as a particularly comfortable one. If it is going to be a worse season for Bury, then it will be as a result of the managerial duo dragging them down, and not due to the players they have at their disposal.

Bishop finished last season with twenty goals, and whilst some of his Dale based critics will point towards the large number of penalties that contributed towards that total, there's no doubt that he's the current jewel in the Bury crown.

To get so many goals in a struggling side shows quality, even if his hair cuts leave a lot to be desired. There was talk of Bishop moving on to bigger and better things after an early season goal rush but it was not to be.

If there's any question marks about Bishop, you could look at him just scoring three goals from open play since the turn of the year. Only our friends at Gigg Lane will be able to tell us whether this was a natural reaction to the lack of a big money move, or just he found chances harder to come by as they dropped through the league.

Either way, there's pressure on his shoulders to deliver the goods for Bury this season for the good of both his own career and his club.

Much will depend this season the Casper / Alexander partnership. Nobody will be able to tell which of the two is pulling the strings and how comfortable the other is with that situation until the season starts. Of course, we've been assured that everything is peachy creamy but they're not going to say anything otherwise.

It's very easy to look at that situation as an outsider and see Alexander's appointment being a backdoor way of replacing Casper, in the hope that Casper walks away. Though I'm sure Casper, who won close to a seven figure sum through the courts when his playing career came to an end, will have ensured that he has sound legal advice regarding his position at Gigg Lane.

If this alliance ends up being less than ideal, then it can only have a negative effect on the team, and with that in mind, its no surprise that Casper is seen as being the League Two manager who is favourite for the chop this season. If push comes to shove, it will be him and not Alexander who will be forced to make way.

But that is the only thing which could possibly derail the season for Bury. We don't foresee another season whether they'll be scrapping it out at the bottom wondering whether their League existence is coming to an end in the month of May.

For the simple reason, they have a keeper and a defence that will keep clean sheets. And they have a forward line up which will score goals. That in itself puts them an automatic advantage over so many teams in this Division. Who cares about the midfield, when the ball will be fifty yards above their heads anyway?

A forward line up of Hurst and Bishop will score them goals. Maybe not as many as we're expecting from ours but that's beside the point. They are strikers who if given opportunities will take full advantage. And either of them would strengthen any of the sides we have tipped to finish below Bury this season.

And the defence will be solid enough. Futcher may well have had a couple of ropey seasons, but he's League Two standard, and you'd assume Alexander knows how to get the best out of him.

But Morgan is the pick of the new signings. He's one of the better central defenders in the Division, and it's somewhat bizarre that Lincoln just allowed him to leave to join a fellow League Two side, but that's not for Bury to worry about.

We all know it won't be pretty to watch, and it's going to be safety first, but they will certainly have what it takes to grind out results, and we can't foresee another situation where they go a third of the season without picking up a win.

So it will be an upturn in fortunes for our friends at Gigg Lane this next season. Not enough to warrant anything like a top half of the table push, but there'll be less worries about the Conference as long as the Alexander + Casper partnership overshadows everything.