Bury v Scunthorpe United

Saturday, September 18, 2004

Football League Two

Bury :
Garner, Scott, Challinor, Swailes, Unsworth, Mattis, Flitcroft, Barry-Murphy, Thomas Kennedy, Nugent, Porter (Newby 67)
Subs not used:
Barrass, Woodthorpe, Whaley, Smith

Scunthorpe United :
Musselwhite, Stanton, Crosby, Butler, Ridley, Sparrow (Taylor 83), Kell, Baraclough, Beagrie, Keogh, Hayes (Rankine 76)
Subs not used:
Byrne, Brighton, Evans

SULSESC REPORT

by Vic Duke at Gigg Lane

FOR once, the Bury match report does not start in the Rose and Crown before the match, as your correspondent was under doctor's orders not to drink alcohol for a while.

I can assure you that watching the Iron without prior consumption of beer is a terrible experience.

SULSESC was sparsely represented at Gigg Lane by the presence of Messrs. Skeels, Robertshaw and Borrill.

The first–half comprised three distinct periods. For the first 20 minutes, Bury dominated but a string of corners and free kicks came to nought. There followed a 10 minute purple spell from the Iron, during which Keogh had a "goal" disallowed for offside, Beagrie had a free kick saved by the goalie, and a Beagrie shot flashed just wide. The last 15 minutes of the first–half deteriorated into an awful stalemate.

Indeed the highlight of the first–half was an incident involving a young steward on duty behind Musselwhite's goal and in front of the Iron hordes. Musselwhite stood by his right post to receive the ball from the said steward so that he could take a goal kick. Instead from a distance of two yards from the goalie, the Bury lad threw the ball over the centre of the net towards the penalty spot. A chant of "you don't know what you're doing" was spontaneous.

There were few real chances at either end in the second–half as defences dominated the match.

Just after the hour mark, the best chance fell to Bury's Nugent but Musselwhite came out quickly to block the shot. A series of bizarre and blatantly wrong decisions by the ref resulted in both sets of fans resorting to a reprise of "you don't know, etc".

The match looked to be stumbling to a no score draw, when a bit of quality in the 89th minute won it for the Iron. Michael Rankine was the unlikely hero, scoring a mere 12 minutes into his debut after coming on as sub for Hayes.

Those few diehards who were at the pre–season friendly at the Shay will have already noted his promise. Beagrie flighted an excellent free kick to the far post, Crosby headed it back across to the near post, where Rankine slid the ball into the net.

We had won, Wycombe had lost, the Iron were back at the top of the league! For me this is the first time in over 20 years that I have seen the Iron go top of the league. Is my long wait since 1958 soon to be over?