Bamber Bridge boss Jamie Milligan still searching for first win at home

Despite presiding over three excellent league wins on the road since arriving at the club in December, the new Brig boss has yet to register three points in front of his own supporters at the Sir Tom Finney Stadium.

In mitigation Brig have only played twice at Irongate under Milligan – losing 2-1 to Matlock Town and then drawing 3-3 with Warrington Town.

Tomorrow’s encounter against Buxton also has extra significance at the bottom of the NPL Premier Division.

Although Brig have risen to 15th in the table, they are only six points ahead of the Derbyshire-based outfit, who are third from bottom.

A win for the Bucks would see them drag Brig back near the bottom and Milligan has labelled the clash as ‘must-win’ for his men.

“I have said to the lads that this weekend’s game is must-win for us,” he said.

“We have to be aware of what’s going on behind us and we need to be beating the teams around us.

“We don’t want Buxton to be moving three points behind us.

“Definitely with us being at home, we have to be winning our home games.

“I’m still waiting to get my first win in front of our supporters at home so it would be nice if we can do it this weekend.

“We lost against Matlock in my first game at home and we probably should have got something out of it. We gave away two really bad goals.

“Then against Warrington we were down to 10 men and got back into it to draw 3-3 so that was a good point really.”

Brig were beaten 3-0 at promotion-chasing Basford United on Saturday – a scoreline Milligan felt was slightly flattering to the hosts.

“I think the scoreline was flattering,” he said. “If you look at the stats, we had 10 shots, they had five.

“They were just that little bit more clinical in the final third.

“But they are up there for a reason – they are a good side with some good players.

“I thought we did not do too badly. At half-time, it was 2-0 but I thought we could still get back into it.

“We put them under pressure, but just could not find that goal which would have got us back into it.

“The last five minutes, we threw a few men forward and they scored on the break.”

On the injury front, the squad looks like it will be without talismanic forward Alistair Waddecar and captain Matt Lawlor still out injured. Matthew Thomson is also a major doubt, while Chris Marlow is also missing through suspension.

“The squad is looking a 
~little on the stretched side, but it’s chance for some of the other lads to step up,” said Milligan.