Olly Hughes looking to keep Bury Town's winning run going in FA Trophy and league derby at AFC Sudbury
The big games keep on coming for Bury Town – and you won’t find leader Olly Hughes complaining.
After knocking higher-league Nuneaton Town out of the Emirates FA Cup on Tuesday , the Blues head to fellow Step 4 side Loughborough Dynamo in the Buildbase FA Trophy (3pm). And that is followed on Wednesday by a Pitching In Isthmian League North Division derby at AFC Sudbury (7.45pm).
A succession of such important fixtures are bound to be both physically and mentally demanding, but having seen Maldon & Tiptree deal with it last term, forward Hughes has no concerns.
“That’s what you want as a footballer,” said the player carrying the captain's armband in injured Ollie Fenn's continued absence.
“When we looked at Maldon last season, we thought they had so many games, surely they were going to slip up because of the sheer volume.
“But actually, with the momentum they built they believed they were going to beat anyone and became a machine.
“Even when they had seven or eight games in hand, it didn’t matter.
“They were so good and that is the blueprint for us. We won’t begrudge having more games because it means we are doing well.”
Bury go into the two matches on a good run of form. They have won all seven of their outings in 2020/21, with the potential for that to climb to eight dependent on the result of the league’s hearing into their abandoned clash with Witham Town.
The weekend’s trip to the east Midlands against Loughborough is somewhat of a journey into the unknown, but Hughes insists Bury will be ‘properly prepared’.
“We’ll do our homework. It doesn’t always go to plan because you get something in mind for their best player and then they are left out – that happened tonight (against Nuneaton),” he said.
“But we’ll have them watched and be properly prepared for the game.
“There will not be any complacency and we’ll approach it like we do every match.”
As for the short trip down the A134, Bury will be looking to right the wrongs of their last visit to the MEL Group Stadium back in February, which ended in a 3-0 defeat.
“They’ve not started very well and there will probably be a bit of extra flavour because of Baris (Altintop) coming over from Sudbury,” added the forward.
“We had a horrible result there last year. Although you don’t like to talk about revenge and things like that because the focus has to be on the game coming up, but still in the back of my mind we didn’t do ourselves justice that night.
“It wasn’t a 3-0 game in so much that we created enough chances to get something, but we deserved to be beat.
“It still hurts so we want to put that right, but at the same time it is about keeping this run going.”
Meanwhile, Thursday’s Emirates FA Cup draw handed Bury a fourth qualifying round tie away at Banbury United.
Like Nuneaton, Banbury ply their trade at Step 3 in the Pitching In Southern League Premier Central Division and drew 1-1 at home to Needham Market on Saturday.
The encounter will be played a week tomorrow.
