Not a great day as Bury take the points

Last updated : 17 November 2013 By Andy Ashworth

Captain Alex Whitmore was not in the line-up, with the armband being passed instead to his regular partner Callum Richardson. His place in the team was taken by U-16 centre-half Shaun Hobson. The rest of the team was once more rotated around and we kicked off on a chilly and occasionally blustery morning.

Callum Richardson gave Burnley a first half lead

The opening 20 minutes offered very little of note before a 5 minute period of action that brought the opening goal. Firstly the visitors attacked down their left and fired off a long range effort that keeper Callum Jakovlevs got down to tip around the post. We countered with a strong run and shot down the right wing by Christian Hill. The winger was probing well and his pace was an obvious concern for Bury. They had no answer to him though as he tricked his way past the full back right in the corner, getting into the box and cutting back accurately for Richardson to clip the ball home and give us the lead.

We were playing quite well and getting into the box regularly and some spectators felt we could have had a couple of penalties. The most clear cut shout was when Nathan Lowe jinked into the box quite centrally and hit the deck just before he could unleash, but the ref rejected any appeals.

Just before half time the ref decided to get his book out and card the Bury number 5 following a robust tackle. The break probably prevented the game from developing too much needle, but also probably wound up Big Vince enough to give the requisite motivational team talk.

The 2nd half started with some scrappy play. Bury were pressing well and we were struggling to return to our passing game. Around 10 minutes in Jamie Frost made a challenge from behind on the edge of the centre circle. The ref played on with the intention of returning back to the crime and, despite having a player stricken on the deck, Bury took advantage and pushed through, smashing a shot home to the keeper's left. Frost did pick up a booking and we got the game back underway.

Within minutes Bury had completed their comeback and it was a quick break down their right and a low shot into the bottom corner, past Jakovlevs' left hand. They could have had a third with us rattled, as the number 11 snapped a shot wide of the left hand post.

We made a change on the 70 minute mark as Brad Jackson replaced Ntumba Massanka. Lewis Nuttall was put into a more central position, with Jackson going onto the left wing. It almost worked as Frost combined with Jackson and fired a snapshot against the angle of post and bar. The high tempo harrying style of was sapping our strength and we made a change in the middle as Luke Daly replaced Brandon Wilson.

However, Bury remained on top and as the game wound down they extended their lead as the number 11, apparently a former Claret schoolboy, went on a surging run down the right and fired in a powerful shot again to the left of Jakovlevs.

All in all not a great day at the office for our lads.

Team:- Callum Jakovlevs, Charlie Holt, Waqas Azam, Shaun Hobson, Callum Richardson, Nathan Lowe, Brandon Wilson (Luke Daly), Christian Hill, Lewis Nuttall, Jamie Frost, Ntumba Massanka (Brad Jackson)
Subs not used:- Conor Mitchell, Kevin Ly, Evan Galvin