Story by Kevin Luff - 13th September 2006

Hodgson gives Bury plenty of credit

Darlington manager Dave Hodgson admitted that his side were not at their best last night when they beat Bury 1-0 at the 96.6 TFM Darlington Arena. Quakers perhaps edged a close contest against a hard working Bury side but Hodgson admitted his side were not 'tip top'. The Darlington boss however gave plenty of credit to Bury.

In the end Darlington won the game courtesy of a Barry Conlon penalty - the player's second in as many games. Prior to this the Irishman rattled the crossbar and Julian Joachim saw a good effort blocked by the Bury keeper Kasper Schmeichel. In the end however the hosts did enough for the points.

"It wasn't a tip top performance tonight," admitted Hodgson after the game. "I thought there was some nice football at times but I think you have to give an awful lot of credit to Bury. I thought they played some excellent football. Most of them are all young kids and they are lively, all wanting to buzz around with no fear of defeat and that can cause you problems."

"I thought there was some nice football at times but I think you have to give an awful lot of credit to Bury"

Dave Hodgson on Quakers World

Hodgson said afterwards that he apologised to the players after he felt he had kept them on the training ground the previous day a bit too long. The Quakers gaffer felt his side looked a little tired during the game. Darlington have a hectic run of fixtures for the remainder of this month and things won't get any easier.

"The first thing I said in the changing room to the players was 'I apologise.' That's because I kept us on the training ground too long yesterday. I wanted to make the point that they are a young side but they know what they are doing and I perhaps spent too long making sure players knew where they had to be. It was very warm and I think we ended up fatigued," said Hodgson.

In the end however Hodgson felt his team showed enough to edge the contest feeling the chances were there to wrap up the game earlier. The Darlington boss however was simply relieved to get another three points in the bad as Quakers have not enjoyed a good record against Bury since moving to the 96.6 TFM Darlington Arena. Prior to the game Bury had won all their previous visits to Darlington's new ground but the home side set that right last night.

"I think we had enough opportunities to wrap it up before they started to really believe that they were going to get something out of it. Barry (Conlon) hit the crossbar and Micky Cummins followed up with one and I think that there was one or two other efforts along the way that maybe could have been better," said Hodgson. "On a whole you need three points and last year this team took us out of the play-offs, they beat us here very late on. I think had we won that we would have gone into the play-offs. We didn't and I had that fear in the back of my mind that they might nick something late on. Thankfully they didn't."

Afterwards Hodgson said he was happy with the performance of referee Phil Dowd. There has been much discussion about Premiership referees taking charge of Football League fixtures but Hodgson was happy enough. Mr Dowd gave Darlington a penalty kick for a hand ball in the Bury box. The referee appeared to take his time in making the decision but Hodgson felt he made it in a prompt manner and got it right.

"I thought it was," said Hodgson when asked if he agreed with the decision. "That is dead easy for me to say after the incident but my first thought was 'he has handled that'. Then of course the referee has seen it and given it. The referee actually gave it straight away. I think it was just the way he moved across away from the goal that made people unsure but he pointed instantly to the spot. We were a little fortunate but we got it."

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