Bury AFC v AFC Liverpool, 30th March 2023

Having lost at Vauxhall Motors 48 hours earlier in rather controversial circumstances, Bury still had promotion in their hands, as Bury's return fixture against the motormen was due the following Tuesday. But Bury AFC were left in a position where they now had to play three games a week. With landlords Radcliffe Borough also facing a fixture pile up, this  match was the first of four which I think were moved to Mossley.

Rather predictably, the Reds faced an early Bury onslaught. They went close quite early, and the predictable signs were there that Jack McGovern was likely to be the busier keeper.

We were holding on at 0-0 on 20 minutes, and occasionally looking like we could be a threat on the brake. Then we were unexpectedly given a gift. A mix up at the back between keeper and defender enabled Tom Croughan to run in  give us the lead. Tom actually playing was a bonus. We all thought he had left us a few weeks ago to join our purple cousins. But apparently he had remained on a dual registration. A dual registration between AFC Liverpool and City of Liverpool is not exactly a dual registration made in heaven!

Unfortunately the lead lasted little more than a minute. The same Bury threat straightaway resumed following the equaliser. Soon a great effort from a good 20 plus yards seemed to be heading into Jack's top left hand corner, with our keeper comfortably beaten. Thankfully the upright saved us, prompting Steve Fraser to invent a chant that Mossley's goal posts are our Goalkeeper!

Despite the let off from that effort (which would have no doubt been many Bury fans' favourite goal had it gone in) the momentum stayed with the hosts. Once or twice, I remarked to Arash Sedighi that we had 20 mins of this to put up with till half time.

A few minutes before the interval we were unexpectedly given a boost, which could have switched the momentum our way for the second half. Tom Douglas went in to challenge Bury's keeper who was trying to clear. Dougie was late. But their keeper totally lost it and retaliated. Confusion ensued for a few moments over whether the referee had given us a penalty. The referee then spoke to his assistant for a few minutes to sort out what happened. The referee then (after what seemed an eternity) came to the right decision in my view. Tom Douglas was booked and it was a foul on the keeper. Their keeper was then sent off for violent conduct. With Bury's tiring schedule, our threat on the break and our man advantage, we were suddenly presented with an unexpected opportunity to perhaps take all three points.

At half time, Steve, Arash and myself got chatting with one Bury steward and afterwards a group of their fans. In both conversations we spoke about the incident at the end of the first half and we also spoke about some shared frustrations with the standard of some officials, including our infamous Kendal Town story (where the game was almost abandoned). Steve had attended the fixture at Vauxhall Motors 48 hours earlier which Bury lost 2-1. Vauxhall's first goal was a blatant handball, which had been filmed and shared umpteen times on twitter. Steve was certainly wishing Bury all the best after that game.

The game resumed, and the home side were certainly up against it and under pressure. I can't recall Jack McGovern being under much pressure during the second half. But they did get a free kick I recall in a promising position just outside the area which came to nothing.

It was midway through the second half that a golden chance came our way to go back into the lead. It was that man Tom Croughan again. He found himself in against Bury's stand in keeper in the inside left channel. We were all begging him to shoot. Instead he squared it, and Bury got enough people back to thwart the danger.

On 77 minutes Bury got another dangerous free kick just outside the area. The free kick was blocked by Jack. Unfortunately he couldn't hold it, and their oncoming fella despatched the rebound. The 10 men were now in the lead.

We did put a bit of pressure on them in the very late stages, but we didn't put their stand in keeper under any kind of significant pressure. Bury held on in adversity to what could have turned out to have been three significant points.

From our perspective, we don't like losing games. But sometimes you have to have a bit of perspective. Bury AFC were the team hotly fancied to win promotion and had the fan base and finances that were always going to be likely to get them out of the division at some point. Had they got out of the blocks very earlier and scored a few early goals that night, then we could have been on the end of quiteva heavy defeat. That didn't happen as we gave Bury AFC a game. We were competitive and should be very proud of that performance. 

We also had four games still to go in our efforts to find at least another 8 points to reach our highest ever points total in the North West Counties Premier Division.