10th April 2025
Bury Relics Stripes O 60’s
Squad:-
Mike Bartram ( C )
Keith Gillespie ( GK )
Nev Kitchen
Steve Hassall
Mark Thomas
Iain Dawson
Steve Murphey
Andy Richardson
Ken Bond
Pat Fitzgerald ( stand in manager )
I asked for pre-match thoughts
Keiran…” we’ve got a strong squad “
Pat….” It’s a beautiful sunny day”
Concise and accurate statements… we’re off to a great start.
First game was against Clarets Casuals.
Substitutes:Ken, Nev, Steve M.
It was indeed a beautiful sunny day
I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by this opening game.
The Stripes played some beautiful football , moving the ball around with ease , some lovely accurate passing and movement off the ball ( crucial to any decent team) .
There were lots of shots… in the general direction of the oppositions goals from Mike ,Andy , Ian and Mark .
Mark probably had the best effort forcing a save from the keeper, in fact there were so many shots it was hard to keep up, the general consensus was three on target.
Bury should have won this game, the Clarets were hardly in it but the shots were for the most part lacking in accuracy and power.
A great shame as the build up play was lovely I think perhaps benefitting from Mike playing a more central position than usual.
A good start but a disappointing scoreline
Bury 0 Clarets Casuals 0
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Second game up was against
Preston North End Whites Seniors
Substitutes: Steve H, Iain, Andy.
Preston are a decent team with some very strong players but this in no way fazed the Stripes.
This was a proper end to end game and great to watch ( which makes it kind of hard to take notes for fear of missing something 😊 that’s my excuses out of the way)
Again, lots of good passing and off the ball movement, not sure I’ve seen the Stripes play this well except perhaps in the last sessions of last season, again benefitting from Mike playing more centrally.
This was a hard fought game, both sides having at least three corners each , very difficult going up and down the pitch in warm weather and sweaty brows were the order of the day, I’m sure other bits were sweating but…. let’s not go there…Ste Murphey ( I’m going off the spelling I was given of your name Ste hope it’s right)😊 had two great powerful shots on target, in reply Preston forced Keith into making three great saves .
The only downside ( apart from not winning) to this game was that Bury got caught in transition a few times and on another day might’ve conceded a few.
A case in point being a free kick mix-up by Bury on the edge of the opposition area ( an easy to make mix-up which I’ve seen happen a few times at these sessions) where Mike back-heeled to Ste M but he’d just moved his position and the ball went loose, as is often the case a team is at its most vulnerable when everyone is up front attacking and not paying attention to what’s happening behind them, Preston were able to easily thread a ball through to their front man who really should have scored but Bury got let off the hook fortunately as it wouldn’t have been a fair reflection of this evenly balanced game.
A very good match
Bury 0 Preston North End 0
NB :
Pat pointed out that Bury had more shots in the last two games than in the last two entire sessions .
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Third match was against Wakefield
Substitutes : Nev, Ken, Mike
There was a long delay before this match which perhaps didn’t help but Wakefield are a very strong team and this would prove to be the hardest game of the day.
The first decent chance fell to Andy and on any other day this would have been in the back of the net but nothing is certain in football and his attempt didn’t succeed.
After that it became a pretty one-sided game with Wakefield dominating possession.
Keith was forced into a good reaction save which he probably didn’t see till the very last second and he pushed it over the bar.
In response Mark had a decent shot on target saved. The pressure just intensified though and Bury gave away a free-kick on the edge of the box, Wakefield forced Keith into another great save.
For the most part of this game Ste H had managed to contain their very dangerous striker forcing him wide and blocking him but eventually with a little help from the dark arts the striker managed to break free and probably broke a couple of Ste’s toes too.
The Wakefield striker backed into Ste a couple of times and as any defender knows when you’re up against the penalty area you’re between a rock and a hard place , with nowhere to go Ste stood his ground and the striker stood on Ste , as Ste bent over in obvious pain the striker pulled away and turned and scored. The referee gave the goal despite the multiple infringements by the striker and unfortunately Bury suffered their first defeat of the day.
Bury 0 Wakefield 1
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Fourth match against Rochdale Striders
Substitutes: Ste M, Andy, Mark
Cometh the hour cometh the man.
Being in the right place at the right time is a fine art , being able to capitalise upon that is also an art in itself… enter the mighty Nev.
This goal happened so quickly it caught everyone by surprise, some lovely passing moves put Mike in a great position just to the right of the nets, an acute angle but not enough to stop Mike unleashing a worthy effort which the keeper parried only to watch the ball trickle seemingly in slow motion towards Nev waiting poised on the other side of the box, fortunately Nev had the patience to wait for the ball to leave the area which took so long that he had time to polish his boots on his socks in anticipation, now many a slip can happen between the cup and the mouth… but not this time… “have it”… is what he should have shouted but as we all know Nev is shy and retiring so he just nonchalantly placed it in the back of the nets… he regretted the knee slide on the artificial surface but no one could begrudge him a celebration as he had worked hard all day ( ok I’m lying about the knee slide ).
There were further attempts on target by Mike and Iain and a rugby style conversion by Nev but we can forgive him that one.
However, not all the drama was done, Keith made an uncharacteristic error and gifted the ball to their striker but he managed to cut down the angle and smother the shot , a heart in mouth moment but well recovered.
Mike was subbed for Andy but no more drama emerged , Bury managed the game well and kept most of the possession .
And won…. Yaye
Bury 1 Rochdale Striders 0
A thoroughly deserved 5 points fought for by everyone in the squad in difficult warm conditions, a pleasure to watch… well done everyone involved .
(No tomatoes or Velcro were involved in the making of this report )
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Report by Kev-iam Shakespeare.
Bury Relics 