Forthcoming Fixtures

F Team Beaten by Referee and Bury

BFC Reserves 3 - 2 MCFC (Reserves)Reserves

Bury were fortunate to be facing a team that over half of its players will not be playing in the sky blue of City next season as the main players were down on the south coast beating Portsmouth in the FA Youth cup. They were also helped by officials who had a diabolical first half. City's first half penalty from Ian Daly and second half equalizer from Karl Moore were not enough as Bury claimed a late winner against the run of play and the ten men of City.

Any assessor watching this game would be writing a report as long as your arm as to why the officials of this match should not be in charge at Sunday league level; never mind a league reserve game.

When Ian Daly made a strong solo run that took him into the penalty area on twenty eight minutes and was brought down by the goalkeeper; you expect the player to be at least booked; if not red carded; being the last man with a clear sight at goal. He was not even spoken to. Daly picked himself up and sent the goalkeeper, Cameron Belford the wrong way.

Three minutes later Bury had undeservedly equalized when a move down the right led to a blatant push that neither the referee's assistant, who was just out of his nappies or the referee saw, that most of the ground did; led to the player being free to pass to the un-marked Jack Dorney on the edge of the box who fired the ball past James Wood in goal.

As the half drew to a close the referee really got his gold star when Chris Ramsey pulled the Bury player's shirt outside the box and the player fell into the box on the left hand side. It was a free kick and Ramsey deserved a booking. But oh no; the referee points to the spot and unbeknown to the rest of the ground decides to send Ramsey off. You might just be able to accept that if he had sent Belford off; but he had not even spoken to him. It has to be nearly as bad as the goal that never was with Watford and QPR. How referee Mr Wright could have seen the Bury player run as a clear goalscoring opportunity and not Ian Daly's; the mind boggles over the human race at times. Dorney stepped up to convert the penalty.

City after a rather heated half time talk because they had not been great; came out and were much more purposeful despite being down to ten men. So it was no surprise that they levelled things up nine minutes after the restarted when Daly was fouled near the edge of the area and Karl Moore after returning from his loan spell at Millwall converted a sweetly struck free kick directly into the corner of the goal.

City dominated the possession as they passed the ball well; but being a man light and not having enough pace up front found that no one was able to get onto balls into the box. So against the run of play with five minutes remaining took the lead for the second and last time when a ball was cleared out to the left from a corner; but was drilled back in and David Thompson found himself able to hit the ball past Wood in the City goal.

City will face Bury again in a double header next week. The venue should be at the athletics arena being as it is an afternoon kick off. But as its deep in winter; a murky day might mean the need for floodlights and they are still not ready yet, who knows.

As previously stated; well done to the youth team for making it to the fifth round of the FA Youth Cup with a one nil win away to Portsmouth thanks to a late first half header from Dedryk (The Kaiser) Boyata.


City: Wood(GK), Obeng(Capt.), Morris, Kay, Brown(Paldan 86), Ramsey, Tsiaklis(Smith 46), Carter(Mitchell 75), Daly, Cieslewicz, Moore.

Subs: T Johansen(GK), Frater.


Att: Approx 100.