Croft hits back over Bury blast

Lee Croft

LEE Croft has denied the charge levelled at Athletic's playing staff that a lack of effort was to blame for the first of last week's double-helping of home defeats.

After a 2-1 loss to Bury a week ago, club chairman Simon Corney lambasted a "benign and pathetic" showing from the team.

Athletic improved against league leaders Tranmere, but still lost the game through a defensive lapse to slip to within a point of the relegation zone, albeit with a game in hand.

"We didn't go into the (Bury) game thinking 'let's not make an effort tonight'," said Croft, a hard-working ever-present this season.

"That never happens. It just didn't go for us.

"I don't think we went into the Bury game feeling we had the divine right to win. We just didn't play well.

"We came up against the top of the league and we wanted to make our mark against Tranmere, to show that we have players we believe can match any side in this division.

"But it is all well and good playing good football. You can't keep on making mistakes that cost you goals if you want to win games.

"The result was hard to take. We played some good football and it wasn't like Bury where we didn't deserve anything — we did.”

While Croft will keep his right-midfield station at Bournemouth on Saturday, the two men inside him, Dean Furman and James Wesolowski, are absent through suspension.

o CARL Winchester is in the Northern Ireland under-21s squad for the game against their England counterparts at Bloomfield Road tonight.

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