NORTH LANCS LEAGUE ONE

Fleetwood 29 Bury 5

BY MIKE JONES

SATURDAY was to provide a benchmark by which to judge whether promotion is a reasonable objective for Bury as the opposition have only recently been relegated after many seasons at higher levels.

You could not accuse the visitors of lack of preparation as coach Dave Wadsworth had had the opposition watched the previous week by past captain Sammy Kelly and devised a game plan based on his observations.

To quote a well-used phrase, "You cannot make bricks without straw".

Bury coiuld have opened the scoring after six minutes after being awarded a penalty for offside, a fair return for sustained pressure.

However, the attempt was missed and this effort along with three other efforts which went unconverted did not help the situation.

Fleetwood opened the scoring after 15 minutes with a simple try from a line out. The ball was worked down the line and the tighthead prop took an inside pass from the outside centre to score under the posts.

They were to follow this up some 15 minutes later with a try which was, to say the least fortuitous, when Bernard Robinson, a multi-skilled player, missed a high ball when he looed into the sun. The ball bounced behind him, was fly-hacked downfield and Fleetwood reached the ball to touch it down before the Bury defence for an unconverted try.

Bury were competing, but not threatening the Fleetwood line, and it was the home side that rounded off the scoring for the first half with a simple penalty from in front of the posts to give them a 15-point margin at half-time.

Bury's cause was not lost and after 15 minutes of sustained scrumming and rucking inside the Fleetwood 22, Robinson made amends for his previous error by linking with the threequarters to score in the left corner for an unconverted try.

During this period of sustained pressure from the forwards, the referee, who had an excellent game, marred only by his inability to penalise the home side for deliberately collapsing and wheeling the set scrum, should have given one, if not two, penalty tries.

Fleetwood effectively killed off the game when the inside centre went under the sticks for a converted try.

In the dying minutes the Fleetwood captain and tighthead, Nick Beenham, scored his second try under the posts to round things off.

It's very easy to be critical about individual players for under-performing and it would not be unfair to say Bury lacked direction in the pivotal role of stand off half. Keith Webb did not make adequate use of a plentiful supply of quality ball from his forwards and scrum half.

However, confidence is everything and, to return to the first team after nearly two seasons out following horrendous damage to his right knee ligament is testament to his commitment.

What happens in circumstances like these is the malady spreads throughout the threequarters and they, in turn, lose confidence and cease to play with the cohesion needed to achieve results at this level.

The problems are not insurmountable. To bastardise a quote from the late, great Eric Morecambe to Andre Previn "Bury are playing all the right players, but not necessarily in the right position or in the right team" -- apart from this week's forwards.

BURY: Marshall, Whitehead, Holland, A Smith, Kennedy, Westwood (cpt), Smithson, Blenkharn, G Smith, K Webb, Stott, I Webb, Stokes, Fielding, Robinson. Replacements: Smythe (for Holland, 75 mins).

Tomorrow MV Trafford are the visitors to Radcliffe Road in a North Lancs League One match (kick-off 3pm). The match is sponsored by President Graham Smith, who is entertaining past players, officials and invited guets before the match.