Both teams entered the field of play wearing Bury kits, Bury in their chocolate and blue and Bradford wearing last season's Bury home shirt. That was a bit odd. Not sure what the reason for that was but it made things a bit confusing at first.
The other striking thing early on was the crowd. There was just less than 3000 there which was very disappointing considering what it would have been had we played the game on Boxing Day, so stick that up your arse Coleman. Doesn't seem so clever now does it?
Within maybe 20 seconds of the start, Wayne Brown was forced into the first of three or four extraordinary saves, this time at point blank as Bury's defence had one of their most shaky 45s so far this season. At no point did they look confident at all and i'm quite sure someone put some sleeping pills in Sodje's vimto before the game because he was all over the place, slicing clearances and missing kicks.
I had the rare experience of having my cock in my hand as Bury scored their first goal as I had gone for a poorly timed wee. I have often wondered what a goal sounds like from inside the stand and now I know. The crowd noise builds up and up, with shouts of 'GO ON!' and then complete silence, just for a second, and then ROAR! Yeah, come on! and all that sort of thing. A new one for me that. Jones the scorer, apparently.
Some dodgy defending let Bradford back into it, the cross wasn't cut out properly I think and then no-one's really sure what happened. It went down as a Sodje own goal but to me it looked like the ball looped over to a striker lying almost on the ground who headed it and Brown got a hand to it but couldn't keep it out. In reality it was probably nothing like that, sone were saying it went in off Sodje's back so fuck knows. either way it was 1-1.
After half an hour a good attack with some neat build up saw Dawson burst into the box and he was tripped. The Bradford fans (about 900 of them) thought it was a dive but I reckon he drew the foul and that's what it was - a foul. Lowe was cucumber-like in slotting the pen away for 2-1.
That's how it stayed too although quite how it did i'm not sure. Bradford attacked throughout the second half and we defended better but still they kept us on the edge of our seats. We had chances too, a Sodje header from a free kick being ruled out for offside but Bradford will quite rightly feel a bit unlucky to have lost. They had a player, a big black lump called Omar something (obviously there were no names on the back of their shirts) who played on the left wing and was a real handful.
Player-wise, Sodje and Futch were generally unsteady in defence, Scotty was excellent, BBM was his usual hot and cold self putting in some good passes and then giving the ball away. In fact everyone was guilty of giving it away too cheaply. Morrell and Lowe worked their little socks off as usual.
All in all it was another highly enjoyable game and a fanstatic result. Rotherham lost too so we're third now and also three points better off than we were after 25 games last season. Hereford on Saturday, we have to win that and we'll be well on our way. |
