Knill's winning mentality rubbing off

12:10pm Thursday 14th August 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

ALAN Knill believes the change in attitude in the Shakers dressing room will provide the catalyst for a successful League Two campaign.

The Bury manager, although disappointed at being knocked out of the Carling Cup by Burnley, was pleased his players were also downbeat and did not take defeat lightly.

Since coming to the club in February, Knill has set about changing the mentality of the League Two outfit – the main thing being that defeat is not acceptable.

And Knill saw signs in the dressing room on Tuesday night that suggest his winning mentality is rubbing off.

“The mood in the dressing room wasn’t good, but I don’t mind that because you should be disappointed when you lose,” said the Shakers manager.

“When we lost 1-0 away at Peterborough last season the changing room was happy because we had only lost 1-0. The mentality has changed now – and it had to if we were going to be successful. It’s not acceptable to lose, no matter who you are playing against.

“We should have beaten Burnley. I don’t care who we play, I think I have got a decent team here and I think we showed we are more than capable of beating a top Championship team.

“The bottom line, though, is that they are in the next round – and not us.”

Bury were the better team against Burnley, and certainly didn’t deserve to be dumped out of the competition at the first hurdle.

And Knill believes his side can take confidence from an opening day victory over Brentford and a fine performance against the Clarets into Saturday’s game against Chesterfield.

“We’re a good side and are taking plenty of confidence into the Chesterfield game,” said Knill.

“We have got good players and we performed against a Championship side and gave them a really good game, so there is no reason why we can’t perform against someone in our own league.

“We performed well against a team that has spent unbelievable amounts of money – it’s a marker set down for the players. The performance was good, but it’s about the result.

“It’s about winning because it’s a results business.”

The Shakers boss has to decide whether to give a full debut to striker Andy Morrell at Saltergate, but admits the former Blackpool striker may be the club’s last signing for the time being.

Knill said: “For now the squad looks quite strong and, although we are always looking, for now we think we are okay.”