Bury learn from their mistakes

BRAVE Bury returned from Molineux last Saturday (Aug 30) pointless but fears that they might not be able to "cut the mustard" against the First Division's aristocrats were well and truly crushed.

Ignore the 2-4 scoreline - in a thrilling end-to-end tussle Stan Ternent's Shakers gave as good as they got and can consider themselves unlucky not to have earned something for their considerable endeavours.

That they didn't can be put down to some uncharacteristic individual errors and if one lesson is to be learned from the game it's that you give players of the quality of Steve Bull and wonder-kid Robbie Keane a sniff of goal at your peril.

Bull ended a ten game scoring drought with a brace, while 17-year-old Keane, surely a megastar of the future, hit the other two to leave the Shakers waiting at least another year for the Molineux victory they last celebrated in 1919.

Benefactor Sir Jack Hayward has reputedly put £40 million into the Wanderers' coffers, an astronomical figure the Shakers could only dream about.

But money can't buy the spirit that burns at the heart of this Bury team and they showed it in heaps, especially midway through the second half when, 3-2 down, they laid seige to the Wolverhampton goal.

This spell heralded the turning point of the game when Andy Gray cracked a superb 35-yard shot that cannoned down off the crossbar with 'keeper Mike Stowell flapping at thin air.

Had that effort gone in, it's anyone's guess what the end result would have been but despite the defeat a thousand-or-so vocal Shakers fans in the 21,141 crowd rightly gave their side a tremendous ovation.

The Shakers set about their hosts from the off and were unlucky not to open the scoring inside fifty seconds. A Dean West free kick was headed across goal by an unmarked Chris Lucketti and Tony Battersby just failed to connect as the ball sailed invitingly across the face of goal.

In their first worthwhile attack four minutes later Wolves hit back with the opening goal when a flicked header from Bull caught out Gray and Keane showed composure beyond his years to race on and clip the ball over the advancing Dean Kiely.

Buoyed up by the goal the home side stepped up a gear and twice Kiely did well to deny the abrasive Don Goodman while Armstrong bravely blocked a goalbound effort from home skipper Mark Atkins.

The resilient Shakers weathered the storm and hauled themselves back on level terms thanks to Tony Battersby's first league goal of the season.

Former Spurs star Steve Sedgley's careless clearance fell straight to Nick Daws whose first time ball to Battersby caught the Wolves decence on the hop and the summer signing from Notts County calmly rounded Stowell to ram home into the empty goal.

The hardworking Shakers, clearly revelling in the big match atmosphere, deserved to go in level at the break but it wasn't to be as Black Country legend Bull struck.

Nobody picked up substitute Jermaine Wright, a 37th minute replacement for Sedgley, when he made a telling run down the inside right channel and when Armstrong failed to block his drilled cross, Bull arrived on the scene to volley home from close range.

Six minutes after the restart the 'Tipton Thunderbolt' added his second and Wolves' third when he climbed high above Kiely to convert Steve Froggett's left wing cross.

The goal stiffened Bury's resolve and they took the game by the scruff of the neck.

David Johnson, enjoying one of his best performances in a Bury shirt, was causing untold problems for the rickety home defence.

After 57 minutes only a timely tackle by full-back Jamie Smith halted the Shakers striker on a typical mazy run into the box after but there was nothing anyone in an old gold shirt could do three minutes later when Johnson reduced the arrears, racing onto Swan's header to burst between two defenders and fire home off the inside of the post.

Four minutes later Gray picked up a loose ball 35 yards from goal and unleased a thunderous dipping drive that cannoned off the underside of the crossbar to safety.

As the Shakers chased the game Wolves began to create chances on the break.

Kiely had to be on his mettle to parry a powerful drive from Keane who followed up by blasting over the bar. Bull saw an angled effort shave the post and the Shakers' 'keeper was glad to see a linesman's flag raised for an infringement when a cross by Smith sailed over his head and in off the post.

The fourth goal, four minutes from time, left Shakers' boss Ternent seething emanating, as it did, from a Bury free-kick on the edge of the Wolves' box.

Rather than play the ball into a packed penalty area Armstrong elected to slip it inside to Johnson but Darren Ferguson read his intent and intercepted.

His early ball found Keane just inside the Shakers half and the youngster shrugged off a challenge from Gray to race clear and fire past a helpless Kiely.

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