Thursday 20th March 2025
Over 65’s squad:-
Manager K Buggie
K Gillespie GK
G Walton Capt
K Amos
K Swain
I McCann
J Wardle
P Schevtschenko
Beautiful spring day,
The birds a singin’
The bees a buzzin’
Graham’s a chattin’.
Opening game against Winstanley Walkers.
Keith Swain started on the bench but would swap with Kevin Amos mid way through the game as Kevin is playing despite not feeling very well.
A bare seven squad .
Winstanley are a good team and dominated at first with impressive flowing passing moves, this was a fast paced game which always takes a bit of adjustment especially with it being the first one up.
I want to say Winstanley scored first… so I will… but poor note taking on my part makes this a debatable point… speaking of debatable the ref made a few errors in my (totally unbiased )opinion .😊
Bury got back into the match resulting in three good shots on target one from Keith Swain and two from Graham one of which slid nicely past their keeper to make it one apiece.
Ian McCann and John Wardle were proving a handful in midfield and slotted some lovely passes through, at one point Graham returned the favour and passed to Ian who was fouled just as he was about to release his shot right on the edge of the box…. now by the rules this should have been a DOGSO ( denial of goal scoring opportunity) resulting in a penalty and a sending off… instead a free kick was given…. made no sense to me at the time… still doesn’t.
The game went back and forth but no more breakthroughs occurred, Pete was stalwart in defending as usual.
Bury 1 Winstanley 1
A fair ( ish ) result
Second game against Panthers 🐆
Pete on the subs bench for this game.
Bury dominated this game and should have had a load of goals.
John Wardle had a great beautifully placed shot saved by the keeper, Graham managed to sneak one past the keeper though to make it one nil.
The rest of the match is summed up by my hastily scribbled notes which went as follows :
John Wardle missed a sitter
Ian McCann missed a sitter
Graham missed a sitter
There were lots and lots of wayward shots.
To be fair there was some lovely play also at times but Bury should have had at least three.
It didn’t seem to be Ian McCann’s day as he should’ve been awarded a DOGSO again in this match for a foul on the edge of the area that thwarted a clear chance on goal.
Kevin and Keith did a great job in defence/ midfield. As did Keith in nets.
Bury 1 Panthers 0
Third match was against Blackpool
Kev was sub in this game.
Again Bury dominated this match but only two shots on target, one from Graham saved by the keeper and another from Ian McCann saved by the keeper who was impressive in this game. John Wardle saw a great effort from a free kick hit the post.
There was lots of good pressure from Bury a few wayward shots but despite their dominance they were almost undone by a simple pass to the Blackpool striker who dead centre right on the edge of the area looked certain to score and probably would but for a timely intervention from Keith Swain.
Bury should have won this game, again a penalty ought to have been awarded for four offences but the ref only had three fingers on his counting hand.
The only other thing of note was John Wardle being warned twice for “colourful “language 😂.
(To be fair to John I did ask him before the game to give me a bit of controversy to write about… unfortunately I couldn’t hear what he said…. so you’ll just have to use your imagination).
Bury 0 Blackpool 0
Fourth game was against Wakefield
John Wardle unable to continue due to injury so no subs.
Wakefield are a very dangerous team, their striker can turn on a sixpence and score with either foot and he’s a bit of a unit too so will muscle players off the ball.
Bearing that in mind I think it is fair to say that this game should be remembered as the
Pete Schevtschenko show.
Bury had no shots on target probably slightly hindered by the six foot brick wall that Wakefield had built on the half-way line just before kick-off .
Keith Gillespie made a couple of fine saves to thwart their striker but those were the only two shots on target they had thanks to the magnificent defensive display of Pete (Velcro) Schevtschenko .
Now obviously everyone played their part but Pete had the foresight to attach Velcro to his leggings and managed to tie the striker’s bootlaces together whilst distracting him with talk about the fine weather and the best way to grow tomatoes 🍅.
Despite Wakefield being able to pick out their striker on multiple occasions with lovely passes from seemingly anywhere on the pitch he couldn’t shake off Schevtschenko.
Obviously it’s pretty stressful when backed into a corner by a great team so quite a bit of arguing ensued but this was punctuated with a bizarre moment where everything seemed to stop and go in slow motion as everyone watched a back-pass from a Wakefield player roll towards their goal everyone that is except their keeper who perhaps was also thinking of the optimum time for planting tomatoes 🍅…. when he did see it it was too late … the ball trickled past him… only to glance against the post🤦♂….and out for a corner… damn.
Bury 0 Wakefield 0
I’m calling this a win… it felt like one
Fifth and final game against Corinthians ( boo…. hiss )🐍
No subs available so Kevin played on despite feeling ill.
This game ebbed back and forth but Corinthians just edged it in terms of attacking play.
Bury perhaps suffering from a combination of fatigue and elation after the last match couldn’t really get going and Corinthians had a couple of great shots on target one after the other… the first producing a spectacular save from Keith Gillespie (at point blank) who stayed alert and saved the second shot too.
The game turned on a free kick and more controversy.
Corinthians got a free kick right on the edge of the box, they placed a man right in front of our defensive wall who received the ball and one touched it to an oncoming unmarked player who buried it in Bury’s net giving Keith no chance.
The thing is , at the time I thought what a great free kick routine ( which it was) but with hindsight I’m pretty sure in the rules of walking football you can’t place a man right next to or in a defensive wall… another refereeing error?
Bury didn’t really recover from this and struggled to build up an attack, a good chance fell to Keith Swain from an Ian McCann pass , Keith found some good space just to the right of the opposition goal but the keeper was quick to smother the shot closing down the angle and making it difficult for Keith to score it was one of those chances (we’ve all probably been there ) where you have a bit too much time to think about it .
A difficult game and a bit of a dampener on the day but in hindsight a pretty positive start to the season all in all.
Bury 0 Corinthians 1
Report by Kev B.
Photos of the day (Kodak Keith H)
Bury Relics 