Bury 1, Sunderland 2

FIFTY-THREE weeks of home supremacy were consigned to history in forty-five minutes by a snappy Sunderland side.

The Wearsiders' brilliant first half display was enough to make them the first team to win at Gigg Lane since Crystal Palace on September 18 last year.

Now Sunderland boss Peter Reid will be hoping that history repeats itself and his side, like Palace, go on to qualify for the Premiership. It takes real quality to turn over the Shakers on their own patch.

Although well beaten on aggregate, there were plenty of positives to take from the game for the home side and boss Stan Ternent was quick to remind visiting journalists of the fact during an abrasive after match conference.

The Bury chief positively bristled when a North East accent suggested his lads had been out-battled.

"You can accuse us of a lot of things but that certainly isn't one of them," he boomed.

"We were out-footballed in the first half when we were chasing shadows but we certainly weren't out-battled. I was delighted with the way my team performed in the second half. Sunderland are a quality side and we beat them 1-0 in the second half. To suggest they out-fought us is just nonsense."

"I consider Sunderland to be the best team in the division," went on Ternent, warming to his task. "We got a complete runaround in the first half but we were more than competitive in the second. My players have a lot of pride and they showed it.

"It got a bit competitive towards the end of the game but I thought the referee handled the contest very well."

Ternent found a willing ally in Sunderland boss, and personal friend, Peter Reid.

"I have great respect for Bury you only have to look at what they have achieved to know that they are difficult to beat," he declared.

"It was a great result for us because this is one of the most difficult places in football to come to and win." That Sunderland were able to overcome such noteworthy opponents owed much to the skills of striker Martin Smith, a summer transfer target for Man City and watched again by their manager Frank Clark on Tuesday night.

Smith has lost almost a stone in weight in a bid to sharpen his game and win a permanent place in Reid's line-up even the slimmer version was too much for Bury to handle in the first forty-five minutes.

He opened the scoring in the 11th minute with a neat flick header after Michael Gray and Martin Scott had engineered acres of space on the left flank.

In the 34th minute Smith turned provider with a gallop down the left that ended with a pull back from the goal-line that Alex Rae slammed past Dean Kiely.

The half time situation might have been worse had Kiely not produced fine saves from Smith's header and a Chris Byrne shot.

The second half was a different story overall although Bury were still indebted to their 'keeper for a string of fine saves.

Adrian Randall, an interval substitute for the injured Ronnie Jepson, brought an acrobatic stop from Sunderland's Dutch goalkeeper Edwin Zoetebier and Andy Gray had the custodian scampering to his left with a long range effort.

At the other end, Kiely impressed the watching Clark and Man United boss Alex Ferguson with further smart stops from Byrne and substitute Craig Russell.

The Shakers' much improved second half efforts were rewarded in the 65th minute when David Johnson fired home his sixth goal of the season. It was a low, skidding effort that sneaked into the corner of the net past the late diving Zoetebier.

Johnson later confessed that he thought extra practice at shooting, joining Chris Lucketti's weight-training gang, and being more like former team-mate Mark Carter inside the penalty area had made the difference to his improved scoring record

Reid, though, reckoned Johnson should have been pegged on the five mark for the campaign, reasoning that debut-making 'keeper might have done better with the shot.

Still, at least the Dutchman remained free of injury which is more than could be said for Chris Lucketti who retired with a cut head in the game's dying minutes. His departure allowed 17-year-old Matt Barrass to make his debut, the first of what should be many appearances in what Ternent believes will be a glittering career.

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