Bury Town boss, Ben Chenery, will be renewing old rivalries with new Heybridge Swifts manager Julian Dicks at Scraley Road this afternoon (3pm).
Chenery and Dicks were team-mates together at Canvey Island, back in 2001, so that should add some extra spice to what is already an intriguing fixture.
Former high-profile West Ham and Liverpool full-back Dicks, now aged 50, was named as a successor to Jody Brown on the Heybridge hot seat earlier this month, and marked his first game in charge with a thrilling 4-3 win at Mildenhall Town last weekend.
Bury, meanwhile, enjoyed a good result themselves last Saturday, holding Bostik North leaders Basildon United to a goalless draw on the road.
“This is Julian Dicks’ first home game in charge, so there will be a good crowd and a good atmosphere. It promises to be a difficult proposition for us,” admitted Chenery.
“I played with Julian at Canvey Island. We were defenders in the same team, so it will be good to meet up again. All his teams are hard-working, and they had the perfect start last week by scoring four goals at Mildenhall.
“However, we are unbeaten in our last three games and have been playing well.
“Looking at it, before the Basildon game, I saw that no team had taken a point from them at their place, but I thought we edged it and could have nicked the win.
“There was driving rain, and the pitch was not conducive to good football, but we rolled up our sleeves and got a foothold in the game.
“I thought we were the better team on the day. It was a solid performance, against a good team,” added Chenery.
That point at Basildon followed on from back-to-back league wins against Great Wakering Rovers (3-2) and at Witham Town (2-1), making it seven points from a possible nine.
“We had seven or eight new players arriving in the summer, so it takes time for these new lads to understand what I want,” continued Chenery.
“But we’ve got a good structure from the first minute now. They know what are about, and I also believe we have a very fit set of lads who can go on and win matches in the last 20 minutes, if we can stay in the game.
“We just need to deal with the occasion this weekend.”
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