Bury Town manager Richard Wilkins says Blues must make home games count

That is the rallying cry of manager Richard Wilkins, in the wake of Saturday’s fine 1-1 draw at high-flying Maidstone and on the eve of tonight’s home match against Wingate & Finchley.

Despite the impressive draw in Kent, the Blues are down in 12th spot in the table, although a favourable result at Ram Meadow this evening could see them leapfrog three or four places.

“This is an important period of six or so games coming up,” explained Wilkins last night.

“We don’t have many injuries at the moment, so the squad is looking stronger and I have more options.

“The back four is also looking solid, but we really need to make our home games count.”

Bury had a chance to play on Maidstone’s much-talked about 3G artificial pitch on Saturday, and Wilkins was impressed with the surface – Maidstone are the first English club to build a new stadium with a synthetic pitch.

“It wasn’t very different to playing on grass,” revealed Wilkins.

“The main difference is that you can’t really slide in to make tackles, because you wouldn’t get very far.

“But it doesn’t take long to get used to the pitch, and it’s ironic that Maidstone themselves have actually won more games away from home than at home.

“Although our equaliser (Jordan Patrick on 80 minutes) was late on in the match, it was no more than we deserved.

“We had several chances before then, and I thought we were the better team.”

The Blues boss is expected to name a similar squad tonight, with the addition of Danny Cunningham, who is set to return after illness. Jack Higgs could also be added after being unavailable over the weekend.

The return of skipper Tom Bullard certainly made a big difference at Maidstone, marshalling a defence which also included Russell Short, Seb Dunbar and Adam Bailey-Dennis.

Tonight is Bury’s third match in a very busy December, a month which is set to feature eight games.

Wingate & Finchley are 17th in the table.