Bury 3 Crewe Alexandra 3
STARVING Tony Battersby feasted on Coca-Cola Cup glory after getting off his sick-bed to become a hero.
A bout of tonsillitis and stomach trouble had left the 21-year-old striker pounds lighter, and far from fully fit, but he answered the call to sit on the substitutes' bench and then crashed home the extra time penalty that ended an epic tie.
"That was a great tonic," agreed Battersby who hopes to celebrate his 22nd birthday on Saturday with a goal against Wolves.
"I was pretty rough over the weekend but I feel a whole lot better now. I had no qualms about taking the penalty, they should be free goals for any striker. I hadn't taken one for about a year but I hit it well and the main thing is that we are through to the next round."
In truth, Battersby's heroics shouldn't have been needed for Bury missed a host of second half chances that should have seen them run out comfortable winners.
"We should have won it in normal time, " agreed boss Stan Ternent. "It's no wonder I'm grey! We were below par by our standards but we are thankful to get through to the next round and it is credit to the players for sticking at their task."
The roll-coaster ride of emotion began in the 22nd minute when Mark Rivers found acres of space in the box to chip Crewe into the lead and level on aggregate.
The Shakers levelled in the 33rd minute when Andy Gray scored his first for the club (pictured). Gordon Armstrong provided the cross, Ronnie Jepson the decoy and Gray swivelled six yards out and crashed in a right foot volley. Two minutes later the Shakers were in front. David Johnson's acrobatic 12-yard over-head kick deflected off Ashley Westwood and past a stranded Ade Bankole.
The goal was the catalyst for Johnson to produce one of his virtuoso performances as he teased and tormented a Crewe defence that found it hard to cope with his pace and ingenuity.
Even so, it wasn't enough to prevent Crewe from equalising as skipper Shaun Smith strode out of defence to crash a 37th minute, 25-yarder into the bottom corner.
The second half couldn't live up to the first for goal action but it wasn't for the want of trying as Bankole stated his case to be Crewe's number one ahead of Jason Kearton.
Bankole made thrilling stops from Gray, Battersby and Johnson and, the one time he was beaten, the big custodian was rescued by his cross bar as Paul Butler's header thumped back into play.
It wasn't Butler's night, for, forty seconds from the end of normal time, he inadvertently got in the way of Smith's swinging free kick and the ball spun into the net to send the tie into an extra half hour.
That was the cue for Dean Kiely to show Bankole that he, too, was in top form. The Bury 'keeper, who'd earlier pulled off a spectacular save from Kenny Lunt, made an even better stop from Rivers to keep the Shakers' hopes alive and then provided the faintest of touches to help Johnson's rising drive clear the bar.
Both sides adopted a shoot on sight policy in a bid to avoid penalties and it Crewe who cracked six minutes from time when Smith hauled down Battersby who made no mistake from the spot.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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