Bury FC are aiming for a fast start against Longridge Town

Dave McNabb's side gained another point over leaders Ramsbottom United on Tuesday evening when they came from behind to draw with Charnock Richard thanks to Alex Cherera's moment of magic.

However, there was a hint of frustration that they could not find a winner after piling on the pressure in the closing stages.

Attention now turns to the visit of Longridge this weekend and Fogerty insists they must be ready from the first whistle.

“I thought Longridge was in a pretty good place,” he said. “They had three penalties and were quite unlucky, to be honest it wasn't a 5-1 game.

“If they do that again on Saturday, we have to be at our best. We can't start games the way we started (Tuesday).”

The midfielder added: “We had a few words at half-time and the second half was incredible.

“We had a few off the line and a few rash shots. If you look at the odds, we probably deserved to win, but the first half was terrible.

“That has already happened a few times this season. We don't know what it is, if it's a mentality thing, but we've started slowly in some games and it's taken a word at half-time before we really turn it on.

“It has to stop. I know we are now 20 unbeaten in the league, but there have been too many draws.”

The gap to Ramsbottom United has now been reduced to four points with three games remaining, with the leaders yet to travel to Gigg Lane on Boxing Day.

“We are looking for more consistency in our performance,” added assistant manager Tim Lees. “At the level we are at now, it is about what you do in both subjects.

“You're not going to create every chance, we create a lot of chances every game, but we can take them.

“What we as a group cannot tolerate is the drop in performance in the first half. The way we start games is critical, especially the way we want to play.

“We have to take away the confidence of the opposition. That's something we'll focus on on Thursday and look at for Saturday.”