Bury manager David Flitcroft expects ‘20% more effort’ from Chesterfield players, out to impress caretaker boss Mark Smith ahead of the club making a permanent appointment.
The Shakers, who last weekend overcame Rochdale to book a place in the FA Cup third round, will be looking to recover from back-to-back league defeats at the end of November.
But Flitcroft is wary of The Spireites, despite failing to record a league win since October, and particularly players who fear their places are in jeopardy since the departure of Dean Saunders.
“It’s never an easy situation as players will be fearing for their job now,” Flitcroft said.
“The players will be playing for him [Mark Smith] – players who thought they had their feet under the table with Dean Saunders, suddenly now there’s a threat to their contract and them playing.
“You’ll get 20% more effort from those players so we’ve got that to cope with and contend with. But we’ll have a specific game plan that we’ve worked on this week.”
Flitcroft explained that the placement of the FA Cup tie on Sunday gave an opportunity on the Saturday to scout this weekend’s opponents.
He was impressed by the Spireites who forced an FA Cup replay with Walsall, who sit just two points off the summit of League One, after a 1-1 draw.
“Playing a Sunday game gave us a fantastic opportunity – I went across there with our chief scout on Saturday,” he said.
“Walsall are a very good football team and Chesterfield matched them, with a different system, which sometimes happens with a new manager.
“We worked on where we see Chesterfield’s weaknesses, how to exploit them and working on our strength which is hurting teams in the final third.
“We’re looking forward to the game, the lads have been buoyant so we’re really looking forward to it.”
Images courtesy of Bury FC via YouTube, with thanks.
