We spoke to Keith Alexander after the Silkmen were beaten 2-1 by Bury at Gigg Lane.

First of all, the game seemed to turn on their first goal. Was it a penalty?

"Well, it didn't look like one to me, but you get these decision against you when you are struggling a bit and you can't say too much about it, but it looked a terrible decision from where I was."

On a more positive note how did you think that Richard Butcher did on his debut?

"With Bolly and Draper out we've been struggling in that department so I was pleased to bring him in, and he put in a good, solid performance scored an admittedly slightly fortunate goal and will get better as he gets fitter."

What about the overall performance, were you happy with it?

"Well I'm never happy when we lose, but I thought we played well against a team who are flying at the top of the table. We defended well and restricted them to only two shots on target, and it's a shame they scored them both. But teams near the top get the breaks like that!"

So you weren't happy with the second goal either? You thought it was offside?

"I've not seen it on a DVD replay yet, but I thought it was a couple of yards off and the players certainly did. But we're getting very little luck in that respect at the moment."

Another tough game against Accrington coming up, might we have some injured players back?

"Hopefully Ross Draper will be back fit by then but we will probably be missing Ricky Sappleton who had to come off with a hamstring strain today, so we will have to see how he does. Carl Tremarco will stay out for a while yet and Paul Bolland is probably a week or so away."