It’s amazing, the road to Heywood sports centre was clear for a change, with shiny new tarmac. As I approached, I could hear the faint sounds of the Eye of the Tiger Rocky Theme being played in someone’s car. That about summed up the mood of the Bury Relic players and supporters, for the final set of fixture had come around that could bring glory once again to the mighty Relics. Like last week with the over 60s, a single goal was the difference, but this time it was not about relegation but winning the division 1 title. The Relics were in 2^nd place behind Manchester Corinthians. The Relics players, management and supporters all knew that only a perfect set of results and a high quality performance could deliver them the title. This was no easy task and first up were Salcom 65’s.

Bury Relics vs. Salcom 65’s. The opening fixture started off very well for the Relics, with John W quickly intercepted a flaky Salcom pass and tried his luck from several yards outside the area; the hard shot just whistled wide. Similarly, another interception, this time from Graham, also produced another good shot, but again was just wide of the target. From the resulting throw out by the keeper came the Relics first goal. It was a throw out far too close to Jomo, who quickly intercepted and rifled a shot back across the helpless keeper and into the net for 1 – 0 to the Relics. That certainly calmed the nerves; the Relics were playing good football, solid at the back with Tex and Bob. The next trigonometry set of passing by the Relics led to a Graham opportunity but his shot was saved by the keeper. The subsequent Salcom possession led to several passes, culminating in a shot that was wide of the target and nothing for Gaz to worry about. The Relics were in a passing rhythm now, like a metronome, and this created a chance for John W to have a shot but it was not accurate or powerful enough to really trouble the Salcom keeper. Following yet another Relics move, Bob was played in to be one on one, with only the keeper to beat; his low and hard shot shook the right hand post and catapulted the ball right across to the other side of the pitch. Although the ball was retrieved by Bob to keep the move alive, a goal did not materialize. Salcom tried again to make inroads to the Relics defence, but this was rebuffed by a stout and exquisite interception by Tex. Then, after several passes from John W and Jomo, the ball reached the feet of Graham, who held it up and waited to play a good ball to Jomo’s feet, who was now in an advanced position. A very tight turn and sidestep took Jomo away for the Salcom defender, where he thrashed the ball past the keeper to make it 2 – 0 to the Relics; it was a phenomenal all round team goal. Further play from both sides did not lead to any other significant action.
Final Score, Relics 2 – Salcom 0.

Bury Relics vs. Rochdale AFC Strollers. There were a few twists and turns in this game and the game started tense, with both sides trying to get some passing moves going. The first chance fell to Graham, who did a sharp turn but his shot was saved by the pink keeper. Rochdale fought back and had a half chance of their own but it was good clearing up at the back from Pete. Both teams were picking up the odd offence for running and contact, but not up to 4 fouls as yet. The Relics were starting to make a good footballing picture by fitting good passing moves together, this was evident by the cute back heel from Graham that put Jomo in a shooting position, but their keeper again made a save. The next chance fell to a hard working John W but the shot just rose over the bar. In the following passage of play, Rochdale committed another foul and it was a 4-foul penalty to the Relics. After Jomo’s successful spot kick last week, he decided to take the responsibility again. This time he did a perfect one step penalty, only to be denied by a save that defied the laws of physics. It was a good penalty but equally a good save, and it was still a nervous 0 – 0 score-line. Rochdale then went on the attack and won a free-kick just outside the area. This led to a decent shot and good save by Gaz, to keep the Relics hopes alive. The next Relics move saw good play from John W, setting up Jomo with a shot that clipped the right hand post (very close). The subsequent Relics attack saw Graham set up a Tex for a shot, but no joy again. Rochdale were now trying to assert themselves, pressing the Relics high up the pitch and trying to make openings to score, but a terrific interception and long pass put Graham clean through. He had a lot of distance to make up to the ball; he glided across the AstroTurf at high walking speed to get to the ball and fire a great finish passed a stunned Rochdale keeper. What a glorious goal to keep the Relics in the championship hunt! Not long after, the final whistle went to confirm the Relics victory.
Final Score, Relics 1 – Rochdale 0.

Bury Relics vs. Manchester Senior Citizens 65s. Bury played an excellent game here with precise and crisp passing and some great goals. The first started from a Bob tackle, where the ball was passed around to John W, who found Jomo in space, who then fed the ball to Graham. He took a composed, hard shot past the city keeper, to make it 1 – 0 to the Relics. City were doing some good passing moves now but were not putting pressure on the Relics goal. An interception by the Relics led to a multiple pass move that ended with John W in space to the left of the goal; he fired a cracking shot over the keepers shoulder and into the net for 2 – 0 to the Relics. Great stuff. In the next Relics attacks, Graham got into his groove by twice receiving the ball, with his back to goal, swivelling and shooting. Neither led to a goal but the second was hard, high and over, which smashed the fence so hard, it scared the birds away. A bit of a tussle was developing in midfield and as the ball was hit to the left, Bob was favourite to gain possession. However, Bob was completely cleaned out by a sliding tackle that started 10 yards away. The ref was quick to hand out a Blue card, seeing the City player leave the pitch. Relics made the extra man count by passing around the team, which put Jomo through, only to see his shot saved. Again, Relics created another chance, this time for John W, who shot just wide while through on goal. The game was in its last ebbs, when a chance was created for Bob, who took a left foot shot, that looked like he stubbed his toe, and unfortunately did not trouble City’s keeper. It caused Bob more trouble as he was now in a bit of discomfort. The game ended 2 – 0 to the Relics and the dream of glory was still alive.  
Final Score, Relics 2 – Senior Citizens 0.

Bury Relics vs. Manchester Corinthians 65’s. Well it came down to the final game to decide this seasons division 1 champions; it was a game of winner takes all. It almost started with complete disaster for the Relics, as a stray pass across the back was intercepted by a Corinthians player and he took a good shot that was equalled by Gaz in goal. Following the next passage of play, the ball went out of play and Bob was injured and replaced by Pete Shev. As you will expect from 2 good teams, both were passing around well and good play from Tex led to a Relics corner. The ball was then passed to Graham, who steadied himself, and performed an intricate turn to find space and shoot just wide of the target; you could hear the crowd saying “that was a close one”. Both sides were passing well but not finding the killer pass for end product. John W was playing well managing the game by keeping the ball off the Corinthians midfield, as at this point, a draw was good enough to be champions. Possession was still changing hands, until Graham again received the ball up front; with almost a carbon copy of the turn he did earlier, he tried again and as before, it was very close but keeper just saved it to make a corner. Then came the moment of glory for the Corinthians; a ball was passed from the Corinthian defence up to the Corinthians attacker, that bounced just in front of him with his back to goal. As the ball reached him, he swivelled and took a first time speculative hard shot that shocked everyone! It arrowed onto the left hand post, then across to the right hand post, before bouncing into the net; I could almost hear a commentator shouting “aaa-Ray-oooooooo!”. It was the Corinthians Man City Agüero moment, as that goal had sealed the league for them. The Relics toiled hard to get an equalizer but ran out of time and it was not to be.    
Final Score, Relics 0 – Corinthians 1.

Thank you to a committed and brave team performance by all the players, which was backed up by the staff and expertly led by Ken the manager. Proud to be a Relic supporter, was a great effort. The match day squad: Gaz S (GK), Bob, Tex, Graham W, Pete Shev, John W, John M (Jomo) and Keith H.

A special thank you to the great pictures from Kodak Keith and brews by McJonalds, and to all the enthusiastic supporters that turned out to witness a valiant Bury Relics effort.  For all the GMWFL Autumn 2021 results and fixtures see the Match Centre page here

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither were the ancient Pyramids of Egypt, but nothing takes longer than to tarmac the road outside Heywood’s Sports Centre. However, who cares about such trivialities? This was the final fixtures for the over 60’s; today was a fight to avoid relegation, a battle of survival of the fittest. The Bury Relics have a trophy cabinet full of silverware, yet here they were on the cusp of relegation, only just outside the drop zone by a solitary goal difference. Could the mighty Relics hold their heads up high with pride? Or could it be they slope off quietly after the games for a shower, with their heads hung low with shame? Plenty of Bury Relics supporters had turned up to find out. Ken had been drafted into to manage the high stakes fixtures, and people were wondering if it would be a Dodd or Daglish type leadership. Under this intense amount of pressure, what transpired could not be described as anything else but extraordinary.

Bury Relics vs. Bolton (Bury were in Tangerine bibs). The first game that could determine their fate was against Bolton, which started with both sides trying to string passes together, with possession changing hands several times. Inexplicably there was a phantom foul on one of the Bolton players, as if the invisible man had made a two footed slide tackle from about 6ft; the ref’s whistle promptly blew and shouts from the crowd were “Should have gone to Spec Savers”. Anyway, Bolton quickly lost the ball and a chance was created for Jomo, who lashed the ball goalwards with a right foot shot, which the keeper saved. Play then switched down to the Relics end where Bolton managed to win a corner, and subsequently bring a good save out of Gary. Passing at the back from Peter and Tony created some space for Jomo on the right hand side, who fed the ball to Stewart. Wow, what a superb turn and shot! Before the Bolton keeper could react, Stewart had quickly turned and rifled a shot past him. What a sensational goal! Bury’s nerves were calmed a bit. Bolton were now trying harder and pressing the ball, and getting some possession themselves, with some half chances, one of which was superbly blocked by Stewart. There were some vital interceptions at the last moment from both Peter and Tony, this game was at present far from safe, and the tangerine running/foul count was increasing. In the closing stages there was some fine interplay between Stewart and Graham, which created space for Stewart to powerfully shoot, but his shot was parried back out by the Bolton keeper. However, Stewart had not finished yet and moved to the ball quickly and hooked the ball back over the keepers shoulder and into the net. What a crowd pleaser; a superb goal. The supporters were cheering and smiling at the goal, and with the knowledge that it was unlikely that Bolton could come back with a couple of minutes remaining.
Final Score, Relics 2 – Bolton 0.

Bury Relics vs. Wakefield. The opposition Wakefield were quickly into attack in this game, creating 2 early chances and bringing out decisive defending from Tony and a good save from Gary. Then the Relics took over and put together a good spell of possession and what looked like 3 touch in training, by quickly passing to players in space. Wakefield finally intercepted to make a chance but the shot went over the bar. Andy Rud van Rich came on as a sub and was quickly into the action, where a good move nearly had him clean through, only for the final pass to have too much on it. Wakefield were also making chances and it needed a good tackle from Graham to prevent a clear shot. A pass down the line from the back arrived at Andy’s feet on the left hand side, where he waited for support. He was being jockeyed by 2 Wakefield defenders, however this quickly became 4 defenders and Andy had to dribble his way out of trouble and make a pass, maybe like Messi would do. Following the next passage of play, one of the Relics Players decided to gesticulate to the crowd and shout “Loves it!” Not sure why he did that but it made for a good spectacle in any case. Although Wakefield had more shots than the Relics in the game, this was an even match.
Final Score, Relics 0 – Wakefield 0.

Bury Relics vs. Rochdale. Bury did not start this game well and were making some stray passes that the opposition were picking up. Then a move set up a Rochdale player for a shot, but he was just too late and had to travel into the area to get a shot away; the ref spotted it and Relics had the ball. In the next passage of play, Graham made a good tackle to intercept. Then Bury put some passes together and Andy built a chance for Graham, who took a shot from some distance out, which their keeper had time to get down and save. Rochdale then went on the attack, and Peter made a great tackle to prevent a shot. A bit of trench warfare was developing in midfield, when Stewart was body checked and sent tumbling; thankfully all was OK to resume. Graham had a shot, and then a good tackle from Stewart as play continued. Subsequently, out of the blue, there was a Rochdale counter attack down the left hand side. Unknown to the Relics, there was a rogue Rochdale player all on his own on the right, who was picked out by the left winger; in space and on  the run he managed to toe bung the ball past Gary for 1 – 0 to Rochdale. This could have quickly turned into 2 – 0 on Rochdale’s next attack but for a salmon like leap by Gary and a superb fingertip save. The Relics had one big chance near the end, with Stewart clean through on goal; he did nothing wrong as his shot was arrowing towards the back of the net, when a UFO like goalkeeper flew out of nowhere and saved the ball. In truth it was a great save. Final Score, Relics 0 – Rochdale 1.

Bury Relics vs. Champions elect Corinthians. If there ever was a lesson in total football, this was it. There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe how good a Bury Relics performance this was. Relegation was still possible and the Relics were staring down the barrel of disaster. The question was, did the Relics have the balls to fight and perform under such adversity, and against the Champions elect? The answer was a resounding Yes! Fear was put to one side and fluent football played by the Relics. The early stages showed good passing from both teams, with some running offences being committed. The first chance to the Relics was created and executed out of nothing. The ball was played up to Graham’s feet, who pirouetted better than any supreme ballerina and produced a fast howitzer of a shot into the net. 1 – 0 to the Relics. The Corinthians were not happy and were quickly on the attack, but good defending from Pete and Keith were keeping them at bay. Stewart was in the wars again and was a bit dazed from another body check, but like a warrior he continued to play. The Relics were spraying the ball about everywhere and a good pass found its way to Jomo, who took a low hard shot that was like a guided missile, which flew into the net to make it 2 – 0 to the Relics. The crowd were going wild. However not everything was good as the Relics had committed the odd foul and they finally added up to 4, and it was a penalty to the Corinthians. As the Corinthians player stepped up to take the penalty, someone from the crowd was shouting to keeper Gaz, to keep his eye on the ball. And he did exactly that, making a superb diving save to deny the Corinthians a way back into the game. The next Relics attack saw Jomo set up Graham with a brilliant pass and the third goal for Relics was scored. Incredible scenes; Relics on the cusp of relegation beating the champions Corinthians 3 – 0. But that was not the end of the story as Graham again received the ball up front and was fouled by a frustrated defender, which meant a penalty to the Relics. Jomo decisively grabbed the ball (with no complaints from others) and strolled over to the penalty spot. The ref put his whistle to his lips, blew and Jomo proceeded to dink the ball over the diving keeper to make it 4 – 0 to the Relics. Scenes of delirium among the Relics supporters, and this was enhanced by Wakefield team players who were watching behind Gary’s goal; it was a cheer for every Bury touch or pass. The Fans were very happy to see the Relics survive and also amazed in wonderment at such a high quality performance against the Champions Corinthians. It’s notable that today’s 4-0 score line equals the previous highest ever league victory from the 1st of December 2017, when the Over 60’s beat Bolton 4-0 in a Division 3 game, but today’s result probably feels much better.
Final Score, Relics 4 – Corinthians 0.

Thanks to an awesome team performance by all the players, which was backed up by the staff and expertly led by Ken “the Daglish” manager. Absolutely sensational! The match day squad: Gaz S (GK), Tony G, Keith S, Graham W, Pete Shev, Stewart W, John M (Jomo) and Andy R.

A special thank you to Kodak Keith for the great pictures as usual, Mc-John-alds for his brews, and to all the enthusiastic supporters that turned out to witness this historic event.  

For all the GMWFL Autumn 2021 results and fixtures see the Match Centre page here

What a fantastic day of skilled and competitive football in the sunshine; the Relics over 60’s heroes were back in action but were unfortunate not to get the rub of the green.

The action started with a 0 – 0 draw against Bolton where Gaz had to make some sensational saves early on but the Relics then settled down in a rhythm with plenty of shots. Pete was great at marking the opposing attacker and kept him quiet. Graham had a couple of shots that were just wide of the mark, and Stewart had a few shots saved by the Bolton keeper. Then suddenly the Relics had a clever breakaway, where Keith S had a great shot saved by their keeper. The deadlock could not be broken by either team and it ended all square.

Next up were Wakefield who pressed the Relics high and marked well and this restricted the Relics just to a few shots. Following a great shot by Andy on the turn, which just clipped the outside of the post, the game was pretty even. Wakefield were making chances and taking shots but Gaz was equal to them and made at least 3 good saves. However, unfortunately, Wakefield latched onto a throw out and managed to score, giving Gaz no chance this time. The final score was 1 – 0 to Wakefield.

The third game was against Rochdale and this was another close affair. Relics started well and had shots from Andy and Stewart but Rochdale also had shots which forced Gaz into some good saves. Midway through the game Rochdale had a really powerful shot that Gaz initially saved but the power was too strong and carried the ball over the line. Relics pressed hard for an equalizer but did not have enough time to do it. Final score was 1 – 0 to Rochdale.

The final game of the day was against the top of the league Corinthians but the Relics looked the better team. The Relics were on top for most of the game but without having many shots. Corinthians were playing hard and making too many runs and fouls, which led to a penalty to the Relics based on the 4 foul rule. Graham stepped up and took a powerful penalty to the stranded keepers left, which hit the post and rebounded clear. The Corinthians pushed for a winner late on but Tony G battled hard to prevent them. The final results of the day was 0 – 0.

A well done to all the Relics players on the day: Gaz (GK), Pete Shev, Tony G, Graham W, Keith S, Stewart W and Andy R. Also a thank you to the manager Keiren.

As usual a thank you to Kodak Keith for super photos and Dr. John for brews. All support appreciated.

For all the GMWFL Autumn 2021 results and fixtures see the Match Centre page here