Happy Halloween.

Looking at the league table at the moment is like looking at your bank account; it's never as much as you'd hoped for. 14 points leave us feeling a little short changed after the hard work and performances that we've put in over the first 12 games. Blaming factors other than yourselves is always dangerous ground, so I'm not going to, but I wish we'd had some of the luck/decisions that have gone our opponents way. Perhaps that would be echoed by a fair few teams in our league- particularly the ones below us, and with 36 games to go I don't think I'll rule out us getting a few breaks in the months ahead just yet.

But we will have to ride out the frustration that has built up by our 'stop-start' start, Saturday being the latest in a line of games that we would have hoped more from.

2-0 might not be enough to put a game to bed, we've proved that in the last couple of weeks; but at half time we felt in control. We kept the ball well, created chances and were strong at the back. After the break an early goal disrupted that and we were under pressure for large periods, stopped playing the way we should and let Bury back into the game.

Tommy has a knack of saving all my pens in training so I was hoping for some heroics from him, but it wasn't to be (although he did pull off a couple of great stops after their 2nd) and we were left with only the point from another tough game. I wasn't so sure about Chris Casper's comments afterwards- battling a slope and tough conditions? It's not Barnet Chris, and I think our pitch is as good as anyone's, but I'll give you the wind for argument's sake.

And why is it that people always follow comments like 'I'm not moaning but...' with a moan; or ' with no disrespect to Macclesfield' with a disrespectful comment about Macclesfield. Sounds all a bit pot-kettle-black to me, I've been to Bury.

Anyway, back to the dressing room, and I was sorry to see Dave Morley leave us at the end of last week. Being one of the more 'senior' members of the squad myself, it was good to have some older statesmen around, even if it was only to have someone else feeling as stiff as me on a Monday. His experience and character will be missed by everyone at the club.

It does make you realise how short your league career can be sometimes, and you spend most of it focusing on your game and trying to stay fit, that the years can fly by. Saying that, Dave was only 30 and I hope he has a good few years playing in him yet. Perhaps the consideration of 'life after football' is just as more important sometimes, particularly when very few players outside the Premier League can retire when they stop playing.

Anyway if one of his last memories at Macc is his header that helped us beat Wrexham then that's not a bad way to bow out. As my old man tells me, rather morbidly, 'Your a long time dead, enjoy it while it lasts', but I doubt he'll be keen to put a roof back over my head when I finish...

Looking forward to the weekend's game and Mansfield are without a doubt as keen to get the 3 points as we are. They haven't had a great start although Mickey Boulding has been banging the goals in for them at one end. I spent the tail end of last season there and notice Mickey has done a 'Franny Green' and switched from the wing to striker with great effect. I hope he does a 'Hallo-ween' and has a 'horror' of an afternoon, or 'Nightmare on Field Mill' come Saturday....excuse the poor puns I had to get into the 'spirit' of things didn't I?