19th June 2025 Heywood
Over 65’s
Squad:
Keith Gillespie ( GK )
Graham Walton( C )
Pete Schevtschenko
Alan Blackley
Kevin Amos
Keith Swain
Nev Kitchen
Andy Richardson
Manager:
Ken Buggie
Pre-match thoughts
“ It’s hot….. too hot”…..everybody!
First match of this final session before the summer break , it’s the kind of day when sensible people grab an iced drink and find a bit of shade sit back and play spot the cloud.
There were no sensible people to be found …and thus …caught between the hammer of the sun and the anvil of the plastic pitch …battle commenced at Heywood .
Bury were down to a bare six due to a last minute cancellation but fortunately Nev Kitchen and Andy Richardson were able to turn out for the Relics.
First match up against Bolton Arena.
Substitutes Kev and Nev .
Fast game this with Bolton dominating from the off stringing lots of good passes together, Bury seemed a little punch drunk and were getting dragged around the pitch and Bolton’s striker was soon able to find space to the left of the goal and he slotted it in neatly leaving Keith G not much chance of stopping it.
Bolton were looking to add to their lead and forced Keith G into two wonderful saves.
The game started to swing a little bit in Bury’s favour with a great on target attempt by Keith S and a good shot by Andy which missed the target.
Gradually Bury began to string some decent passes together despite tight marking from Bolton and Graham found himself just to the right of the Bolton goal with a defender in front of him, he managed a neat shimmy to get round the defender and just managed to toe poke the ball before he was closed down by another defender and it shot like an arrow into the bottom left corner giving the keeper no chance. This was a toe-poke with attitude…great goal.
Not easy coming back from an early goal down and it ended in a creditable draw.
Bury 1 Bolton Arena 1
Bolton had 8 shots 4 of which on target
Bury had 5 shots 2 of which on target
Tough game but a decent result.
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Second match up against Preston
Substitutes Keith S and Andy R
Not sure where to start with this game, it was very scrappy with both teams making lots of errors.
However I’m going to start with a statistic, Bury had 7 shots… all of which on target… first time I’ve seen that and to add to the merriment these were the shot takers in order:-
Nev
Kev
Nev
Kev
Kev
Pete
Nev
So this was basically the Nev and Kev show with a guest appearance from Pete .
This game was all over the show with everyone playing their part in the chaos ( I think Ken had to just look away on several occasions).
Alan picked up two offences for running and so Ken replaced him with Andy ( Alan asked me to point out that he feels he was “ harshly adjudged to have been running “)
I can’t possibly comment.😊
So…. anyway… the ball is pinging about all over the show with little rhyme or reason and then it just magically appears at Kev Amos’s feet in the opposing half with just one defender badly placed to stop him, Kevin calmly advances towards goal and smashes it past the keeper… GOAL….
Bury then decided to give a masterclass in how not to do game management…. deciding it would add a bit of spice to the proceedings by passing to the Preston players.
This tactic led to a great attempt by Preston whose striker spun and sent a low shot heading towards the bottom right corner , both Ken and I were convinced it was going in but somehow Keith G managed to get down at full stretch to palm it round the post. Preston had three attempts on target but that was the best.
Luckily Preston were still providing opportunities for Bury to score also though most shots weren’t really threatening the keeper, Pete picked up the ball midfield and had a crack which deflected off a defender right back upfield to the feet of their striker
Pete ended up running back to toe poke the ball from his feet but was adjudged ( not harshly 😊) to have run and I was expecting the worst as I have been blue carded for a very similar incident but fortunately just a free kick was given.
Towards the end Neville ( that’s predictive text at work right there) found himself in a similar situation
to the one that lead to the goal earlier on… closed in on goal and unleashed a mighty effort heading straight for the top left corner that somehow the keeper just managed to get a hand to .
Not today Nev….. not today.
Bury 1 Preston 0
Preston had 6 attempts on goal 3 of which on target
Bury as previously noted had 7 attempts on goal all of which on target.
( sorry for the lack of detail Nev and Kev on your other attempts… I was so distracted by the way each team seemed determined to pass to their opponents that I was fully expecting everyone to start hugging each other burst into tears and call it a day)
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Third match against Rochdale
Substitutes Alan and Pete
This match swayed back and forth with Rochdale having 8 shots on goal 4 of which on target
Bury had 6 shots on goal 3 on target
Early doors Keith G made a tremendous save as the ball seemed destined to bury itself into the bottom left corner of the net…. then shortly afterwards at the other end of the pitch a lovely pass from Andy found Nev who unleashed yet another mighty shot only to be denied by the post ( I swear I heard the post give out a little yell of pain … or that might’ve been Nev) .
A free kick to Bury in a decent position saw Andy put the ball over the crossbar…. shortly afterwards Keith S decided to prove that he could also get the ball to go over the crossbar …. way way over the crossbar… over the fence and part of the way into next season…. I think we should put his name down for walking rugby ( don’t worry Keith you weren’t the first and certainly won’t be the last to do that).
Andy had a decent shot blocked then Ken replaced Graham with Alan at the half way point.
Rochdale managed to get a free kick just to the right of centre near Bury’s goal and a bit ( lot ) of confusion ensued resulting in poor marking which gifted Rochdale a free shot to the bottom right corner of the goal… too much for Keith to get to.
Bury were a bit rattled at going a goal down and didn’t really recover… Alan had a lovely shot blocked towards the end of the match but that was all they could muster.
Bury 0 Rochdale 1
6 shots by Bury 3 of them on target
8 shots by Rochdale 4 of which on target.
Not a match that Bury should have lost.
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Last match up against Corinthians Whites
Substitutes: Keith S and Nev.
5 shots from Corinthians 1 of which on target .
4 shots from Bury 3 of which on target.
The highlight of this game was a lovely move fairly early on in the match. Bury were under a bit of pressure from a decent Corinthians team initially but Andy managed to thread a ball from central midfield to Alan who had moved forward on the right hand side into space which Corinthians seemed a bit blind to as Alan did it a few times , Alan controlled the ball well and neatly side-footed it to Graham who had moved up to a central position in front of the box and Graham did what Graham does and scored a cracking goal wrong footing the keeper.
The rest of the game was a bit sloppy some unnecessary showboating passes going wrong ..poor passing that led to an attempt by Corinthians which fortunately hit the post.
Bury woke up a bit after that and put some good passes together leading to Alan supplying Andy with a great chance which hit the post.
And then….. the ref blew his whistle …and the collective sighs of relief were audible in Whitefield .
A good result for Bury 7 hard earned points. Nice way to end the season.
Everyone had good moments and everyone had bad moments, a bit chaotic at times but highly entertaining if somewhat nerve wracking.
Well done ladies.
Bury Relics 