Bury 0, Cardiff 0

IT'S a fact that in the 214 years these two famous old clubs have been in existence they had never faced one another in a cup competition until Saturday.

And to celebrate laying to rest that surprising, if not exactly interesting, statistic both sides contrived to set up another encounter in South Wales next Tuesday evening.

A few short weeks ago the corresponding league fixture threw up a ding-dong battle that the Shakers won by the odd goal in five.

It was a game that Bury boss Neil Warnock said the Bluebirds might have won 6-5 so it came as something of a surprise that this FA Cup second round encounter should result in a goalless stalemate.

That it did owed more to ineffective forward play than any other reason with Bury's out-of-sorts strikers failing to make any inroads on Cardiff's previously porous back line.

Neither Lutel James and Adrian Littlejohn on the flanks got behind the defence nearly enough to cause palpatations in the City ranks and with Andy Preece and leading scorer Ian Lawson also struggling to make any impact a draw of the no-score variety was always a fair bet.

It was also a fair result as both camps agreed after the game with Neil Warnock admitting that Cardiff might even have beaten his side had they upped the ante in the final ten minutes.

"I'm sure Frank (Burrows) will think the tie is over but it'll be a different game down there," said Warnock.

"They will have to come out a bit more in front of their own fans and that will suit us.

"You could see that a single goal would win the game and on the plus side a clean sheet is pleasing and we can't complain, on another day Littlejohn's shot could just have easily have gone in off the post." That effort, a 20 yard daisycutter that arrived two minutes before the interval, was the nearest the Shakers came to breaking the deadlock.

"I was screaming for him to slip the ball to Chris Billy" added Warnock. "But John Hallworth didn't have a chance with the shot, we just needed that little bit of luck."

And, if they finish the job at Ninian Park next week, they go to arch rivals Bolton Wanderers in the next round.

Most of Cardiff's most threatening moments arrived courtesy of long throws and corner kicks but, that said, they never seriously troubled Paddy Kenny in the Shakers goal.

Twice early in the first half full-back Andy Legg got behind the defence, firstly to deliver a cross that Jason Bowen ballooned into the steelwork of the impressive-looking skeletal East Stand and shortly afterwards Steve Redmond did well to block a Legg drive after Bowen's quick thinking fed him with a smartly taken free kick.

After 20 minutes the shivering Shakers fans thought their side should have had a penalty when an overhead kick from Lawson looked to strike the arm of Dutch defender Winston Faerber but referee Matt Messias would have none of it.

Russell Perrett hooked the ball clear for a corner after the impressive Darren Bullock directed a Nick Daws cross goalwards and the Cardiff stopper was on hand to clear minutes later when James drilled a speculative ball into the danger zone.

Two minutes after the interval Kenny was well placed to save a powerful effort from City skipper Mike Ford after good work from Richard Carpenter

At the other end Preece might have done better with a shot on the turn that went high over Hallworth's bar and not even the introduction of Baichung Bhutia for Lawson could spur the Shakers to greater things.

However, the Indian star, interviewed of BBC's Football Focus programme three hours earlier, almost made a name for himself five minutes from time.

Firstly he executed a spectacular bicycle kick in the centre circle to send Billy racing away down the right flank and when his cross was only half cleared by the Cardiff defence the ball broke kindly for Bhutia who could only blast his powerful 20 yard effort over the bar.

Minutes earlier a superbly timed tackle by Redmond saved the day when the lively Christian Roberts was allowed to get clean through on goal but as Warnock remarked after the game: "He knew what he'd be in for in the dressing room after the game if he hadn't made that tackle. Roberts shouldn't have got clear in the first place!"

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