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Josh Cook retained his place in the goals and the back four in front of him retained the personnel from the Chesterfield game but saw Curtis Woods and Ed Williams swap flanks. The only other change to the starting XI was the rotation of Archie Love and Steven Hewitt, with the diminutive battler coming in from the bench.
As expected the game began very slowly with the deceptive bounce of the bobbly pitch a major issue for both sides. The lads crisp passing game was horribly effected and 1st time lay offs were out of the question. The only real chance of the first 20 minutes fell to Bury as they capitalised on a bad bounce and got in on Cook, but the young stopper spread himself well to deflect wide.
Around 25 minutes in it was the tale of two penalty appeals, both of which I'd say the ref got right. Firstly we attacked, with a slide rule pass seeing Joe Jackson into the box. He was just about to pull the trigger when a defender got back at him and challenged. Jackson hit the deck but the ball looked to have been clearly played.
Within moments the Shakers were down at our end and Alex Coleman was the victim of a shocking bounce when looking to clear and, when he was mugged of possession, his efforts to regain it saw him bring down the forward. The Bury captain stepped up and hammered into the top corner giving Cook no chance.
Following their goal we did start to improve and began putting in some attempts on goal, but there was never really enough venom to test the keeper. We then had a long stoppage in play following what looked like a bad injury to our giant centre half Tom Anderson. Jumping to head clear he landed awkwardly on the uneven surface and his knee went sideways. After treatment on the pitch he was stretchered off with a leg brace on and replaced by Steve Edwards. Later in the game as he passed us on crutches the swelling on his knee was plain to see and you'd have to assume it's ligament damage.
The 2nd half started with a chorus of grumbles in my ear - they had stopped serving bacon butties before half time and someone in the crowd was most displeased. On the pitch you got the impression that Pash must have had a few words during the break as it quickly developed into a one sided game. We pressed and pressed, giving the Bury defence no respite and in the opening 10-15 minutes forced a succession of corner kicks.
We were also coming to terms with the pitch and starting to put some goods flowing moves together. Twice Williams was fed down the left and on both occasions he delivered quality crosses. Firstly, he found Shay McCartan who was twice denied by the keeper. Then he teased a ball over which was agonisingly close to a flying Joe McKee. We finally got our just rewards around 70 minutes into the game. McKee had the ball on his trusty right foot and crossed for Jackson to stab home under pressure.
Bury then lost their left back following a strong challenge by Steven Hewitt. The youngster admitted it was poor and accepted his booking. The replacement full back managed to stick his thumb in Hewitt's eye 5 minutes later but we'll try not to read too much into that.
Bury then fashioned their only clear chance of the half as a free header from 5 yards was nodded over. The Shakers forward was also getting frustrated with the officials as they continually overlooked what he felt was excessively close attention by Edwards.
Normal service was resumed shortly after as we went all out for a deserved winner. Edwards headed wide from a corner when unmarked, but in his defence Jackson jumped into his field of vision at the most inopportune moment. Woods then had a cross shot tipped over when released down the right. Jackson had a header cleared off the line and Ross Wilson saw a thunderbolt palmed round by the keeper. McKee also tried to wow us with some magical play on the edge of the box where he instantly controlled a high ball, dragged it onto his unfavoured left and lobbed the keeper, just clearing the bar in the process.
With 2 minutes remaining though we broke the Bury resistance. The Irish connection on the right unlocked the door as McCartan again played in Woods. The full back surged onto the ball and fired at goal, finding the back of the net despite a hand from the keeper and giving the enthusiastic full back his first of the season.
We brought on Tommy Taylor to wind the clock down a little and saw out the remainder of the game professionally. Next up we are away at Carlisle following a swap of our fixtures with them.
Team:- Josh Cook, Curtis Woods, Ed Williams, Alex Coleman, Tom Anderson (Steve Edwards), Dave Lynch, Joe McKee, Steven Hewitt, Shay McCartan (Tommy Taylor), Ross Wilson, Joe Jackson.
Subs not used:- Ben Woodhead, Alex Mullin, Archie Love.
