Buxton boss happy as talented Manchester City side are beaten
John McGrath was pleased from what he saw from his Buxton side on Saturday after they overcame a young Manchester City side 3-2 at the Tarmac Silverlands Stadium.
Ryan Viggars gave the Bucks a first half lead before Luke Brennan doubled the advantage on 56 minutes.
City hit back through American 15-year-old Cavan Sullivan and a Divine Mukasa penalty before Brennan won it for the hosts with a fine left-foot shot.
And speaking to the club’s media after the game, McGrath was impressed by the win.
He said: “It was a really good game. The ethos at Man City is ingrained from first team right down to the 23s, 20s and 18s so it was a really good game and great to get minutes in the lads’ legs.
"It was a different type of game because there was a lot of possession that we were chasing and they were keeping the ball for a bit, but it was an excellent 90 minutes for us.
"It’s good to have a different range of games because you get the physical aspect against the likes of Bury and Matlock and we knew Man City was always going to be a good footballing battle, so during the season you’ll play against all sorts of sides that have their own way of playing and ethos so it’s important we open our boys up to all sorts of games.”
With the season opener at home to Radcliffe now just over a week away, McGrath admits he’s got some decisions to make when it comes to his best 11 given the quality at his disposal.
He said: “You could sit down and pick an 11 and Pablo [Mills, assistant manager] can probably pick a different 11 but everybody in pre-season has given me that headache.
"That’s the standards that we need and we put a squad together for those reasons.
"Everybody who signed knew there probably wasn’t going to be 42 games on the bounce for everybody, but if everybody’s at it and wants to play then it just drives our standards even higher.”
Buxton were due to be back in action on Tuesday night when Stockport County B paid a visit to the TSS after this week’s Advertiser had gone to press.
Buxton will then travel to Warrington Town on Saturday for what will be their final friendly before the National League North season gets under way a week later.