Grimsby Town manager Michael Jolley hopes his side can produce another good performance against one of the top teams in Sky Bet League Two on Saturday (3pm).
The Mariners welcome Ryan Lowe’s Bury, who sit second – having avoided a single league defeat in 2019, to Blundell Park this weekend.
And Town boss Jolley hopes the Mariners can draw inspiration from their home performances against Lincoln City, MK Dons, Tranmere Rovers, Exeter City and Colchester United ahead of this weekend’s clash with the Shakers.
Speaking on iFollow Mariners, he said: “Most of the top sides come to win the game, which perhaps gives us more scope to do that ourselves.
“It’s a clear threat to us, and a big challenge, but actually we’ve probably done better against the teams in the top six than the teams in the bottom six.
“I’m sure it’ll be a good game of football on Saturday – Bury move the ball very well and we think when we play well we can be a match for every team in the league.
“We’ve shown good signs at home, and when we’ve got on a run we’ve done that well, but we haven’t done well enough in the games that people would expect us to win at home.
“Some of the teams in the bottom six have come to Blundell Park, particularly when we’ve been on a good run, and perhaps had the mind-set that a draw would be a good result, or maybe try and nick the game.
“There have been occasions against bottom-six teams where we’ve found ourselves trying to break through 11-man defences.
“And that’s something that we need to address because if we want to do well in this league you’ve got to beat the teams who are near the bottom of the league at home.”
Bury are the league’s highest-scoring side so far this season, having scored 71 goals in 37 league games.
And Jolley praised Ryan Lowe’s men for their attacking play, ahead of this weekend’s clash with the Shakers.
He said: “The last game against Bury was a strange one because we had two great chances to score the first goal.
“We had a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and another good chance that came across the box.
“We didn’t score either of them, and then they scored two quick goals and the game went away from us very quickly.
“I’d like to think that we’re closer to Bury now than we were then. They’re one of the best offensive teams in the league.
“They play 3-5-2 but they’re very fluid within that. They’ve spread the goals around within their team so they’re not overly on reliant on one or two individuals to score.
“There’s probably five, six, or seven players in their team who can score goals.”
Alex Whitmore didn’t train on Thursday, and may miss Saturday’s game due to a small knock.
Watch Michael Jolley’s full pre-Bury press conference for free on iFollow Mariners.
