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All but safe

Dave Lawrenson
27/ 3/2008

HARD working Bury had a happy Easter, defeating second from bottom Mansfield 2-0 and recording a creditable 0-0 draw at third-placed Hereford to all but secure their League Two status for another year.

The results shot Bury up to 15th spot in the table. They are now 13 points clear of the drop zone and manager Alan Knill has picked up an outstanding total of 21 points from his 11 games in charge.

What an impact he has made.

The turnaround in home form has been particularly pleasing for Bury’s fans. The Shakers have gone from having the worst home record in the league to recording three straight home wins for the first time since September 2002.

Their home win against Mansfield on Easter Monday was never in doubt.

Skipper Paul Scott gave Bury the lead on nine minutes, out jumping his marker to head home one of several dangerous set piece deliveries from Brian Barry-Murphy.

And, with Bury dominating the first half, it was no surprise to see them go 2-0 up on 37 minutes.

Striker Adam Rooney, who was recalled in place of Glynn Hurst in the first Bury team change in six games, found the bottom corner with an unerring strike from 15 yards out following good work from David Buchanan, Steve Haslam and the outstanding Elliott Bennett.

Buchanan and keeper Darren Randolph were given special dispensation to play in the game after being called up for under-21s international duty.

But Randolph may as well have been with his Republic of Ireland teammates as he was little more than a spectator in the first half.

Mansfield briefly threatened at the start of the second half with Michael Dawson hitting the post and Michael Boulding volleying an acrobatic effort just over the bar.

But the remainder of the second half was a non event.

Bury defended exceptionally well throughout to record their third clean sheet in four games.

And they could easily have won the match more comfortably with Barry-Murphy, Efe Sodje, Andy Bishop and Nicky Adams all coming close to scoring during the course of the game.

Meanwhile, Randolph certainly earned his wages on Good Friday.

Randolph may have made a couple of clangers at the start of his spell at Bury but he has more than made amends for those in recent weeks and his performance against Hereford was simply superb.

The Charlton ace pulled off a series of impressive saves to halt Hereford’s surprise charge towards automatic promotion as well as their three-game winning streak.

Randolph’s shot stopping class thwarted Ben Smith, Gary Hooper, Theo Robinson and Toumani Diagouraga.

Hooper crashed a shot against the crossbar and Bury full back David Buchanan heroically cleared a Robinson header off the goal line.

But this was by no means a backs to the wall job. Bury had four more shots on goal than Hereford and they were only marginally behind on the possession stats.

As usual, Bishop was Bury’s main goal threat. He could have ended up with a hat-trick but his finishing, for once, let him down.

Bishop’s best chance saw him shoot just wide with only Wayne Brown to beat late on and the Hereford keeper had earlier frustrated him with a fine save from a close range header.

The game was played in bizarre weather with snow, rain, hale and gale force winds all making an appearance in a four-minute spell at one stage. And a lot of Bury fans missed the bore draw after being caught up in an M6 pile-up on the long trek to Herefordshire.

Team against Mansfield: Randolph, Haslam, Sodje, Futcher, Buchanan, Bennett (Parrish, 84mins), Scott, Barry-Murphy, Rooney (Baker, 69mins), Bishop (Hurst, 90mins), Adams. Subs not used: Provett, Rouse. Goals: Scott (10mins), Rooney (37mins). Attendance: 2,779.

Team against Hereford: Randolph, Haslam, Futcher, Sodje, Buchanan, Bennett (Baker, 80mins), Scott, Barry-Murphy, Adams, Bishop, Hurst (Rooney, 71mins). Subs not used: Provett, Parrish, Rouse. Attendance: 3,420.