7th May 2025 Over 70’s at Heywood
Manager Keith Swain
Assistant manager Pat Fitzgerald
Pre match thoughts ….
John Morris “ make sure you spell my name right “
Squad:
Joon Mooris ( C )
Eddy Ford ( GK )
John Wardle
Gerry Luczka
Terence O’ Rourke
Bob Daniels
Graham Walton ( promoted from youth squad)
A fine beautiful sunny day with a promise of fine beautiful football from a squad boasting both experience and youth with the notable promotion of Graham from his Academy position in the 60’s and 65’s to the Senior division.
First game up was against Corinthians
Substitute Gerry
Bury started well with good passing and movement especially between John W and Graham who linked up well but Corinthians came back into it and started pressing more as the game went on.
Corinthians had more opportunities on goal with 7 attempts in total 3 of them on target.
Bury had 5 attempts on goal but only one on target a good effort from Graham from a tight angle producing a good reaction save from their keeper.
This match saw quite a lot of shall we say “ fast walking “ or running as it used to be called . First match tends to be on the quick side but this was pushing the boundaries, at one point Ed rolled the ball out and a Corinthian flew through the air like a ballerina to intercept and take a shot on goal which Ed dealt with superbly.
(Predictive text keeps changing Ed to Edge so if I forget to alter it just remember it’s Ed not the guitarist from U2 who was playing)
No goals in this game, a creditable draw considering Bury didn’t really gel and Corinthians pressed well.
Ed on good form both in goals and guitar.
Bury 0 Corinthians 0
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Second game up against Tameside Striders Blues ( who wear a yellow strip🤦♂️)
Substitute John W
Looking at the stats Bury should’ve walked this game ( intentional pun)
Bury had 6 shots 5 of them on target whereas Tameside had 4 shots with only 1 on target.
But football ain’t that simple.
Bury eventually dominated with good shots from John M and Gerry on target but they started poorly with wayward passing and poor marking and just couldn’t seem to string a move together.
Tameside took advantage of a mixup at the back and forced Ed into a great save which rebounded back to the kicker , Ed tried his best to get to the ball before it left the area which left him out of position, the original kicker then passed it to an unmarked player on his left who had a simple tap in despite an heroic effort by Ed to get back to block it.
Suddenly the game was running away from Bury but they then decided ( telepathically) to turn it on its head….The spirit of Maradona descended and settled into their loins giving them a freedom to pass and move , caressing the ball round the pitch with precision, moving off the ball, talking to each other… this culminating after a seven pass move with a superb goal first touch shot from ( checks notes) Joon Mooris. No wait Jon Marris, Jane Morish… no… John Morris.
Great team goal and Bury really should’ve won… but they didn’t
Bury 1 Tameside 1
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Third game against Rochdale Strollers
Substitute Tex
Maradona decided to sit this one out .
Strange game this… Bury seemed to dominate despite playing poorly, poor passing poor movement yet somehow they managed to stop Rochdale from even having a single shot, quite chaotic at times, nevertheless Bury had 5 shots two of which were on target but the game was decided by one of those weird footballing moments .. a relatively weak shot from Graham hits the keeper bobbles over him and with backspin trickles and I do mean trickles in slow motion into the far corner, unfortunate for the keeper who later made a great save.
Bury 1 Rochdale Strollers 0
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Fourth and final game against Winstanley Walkers.
Substitute Bob
Maradona came back off his break and possessed the entire team again for this final match.
Superb game
Bury had 7 shots 4 of which on target compared to Winstanley who had 3 shots 2 of which on target.
Again superb passing and movement pretty much throughout the game, Bury dominated but Winstanley had a couple of chances one from dead centre close range that somehow that guitarist from U2 managed to save.
Great defending from Tex led to a breakaway with the ball ending up at Jane Morrisey’s feet who passed it superbly from far on the right over to Graham on the left who buried it first time .. great goal.
John W had a great effort saved later on .
But for a valiant display by Winstanley’s keeper this could have been 4 nil , Graham had a couple of great efforts saved early on too.
A very very good display to finish off the day
Bury 1 Winstanley Walkers 0
All in all a thoroughly deserved 8 points.
Special mention for Bob who was as consistent and reliable as ever, Bob does a lot of the unglamorous things that can easily go unnoticed but without which the team would fall apart, tracking players off the ball, closing down attacking players, blocking shots , passing under pressure. Well played Bob.
NB
A photo (above) has been brought to my attention of the last match against Winstanley which seems to show Gerry tackling John W on the edge of our box … I can only assume that not only was the spirit of Maradona present but also the spirit of George Best when he decided to tackle Rodney Marsh despite them being teammates at the time.😂
Editors note
Apparently there are a few spelling mistakes specifically around the spelling of the name of John Morris .
I can’t imagine how this happened but do wholeheartedly apologise to Jane and it won’t happen again… this month.
Bury Relics 