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Bury FC

2014/15 Prediction League; Game 25 – Bury (home)

August 30th 2014; Kal Naismith gives us a 1-0 lead at Gigg Lane :) (where the Shakers have played since they were founded in 1885), but they get two, and we’re bottom of the League with one point from 5 games :o .......Three weeks later Bury beat Burton Albion (then under Gary Rowett) 3-1, to go top......their record is 6 wins, 2 draws, and a single defeat – 1-0 at home to Cheltenham on the opening day ;) ; we’re now in the land of the living, with 10 point from 9 games :D .........they’re out of the Carling, 3-2 at Bolton; they’ve done Morecambe 2-1 in the PaintyThingy Cup first round ..............scroll forward to the beginning of November, and they beat Hemel Hempstead Town :rolleyes: 3-1 in the FA Cup Round One; three days later they lose 2-1 at home to Tranmere in the PaintyThingy Second Round ..........and then it goes TU big style :p:p:p ......... Of their next 8 League games they lose five :eek: (3-1 at home to Newport, 2-1 at Oxford, 1-0 at Morecambe, and twice to the Daggers, 2-0 at home and 1-0 away); they draw one (2-2 against York), and win just twice – 3-2 at Northampton on Boxing Day, and 2-0 against Mansfield at home on 28th December); P8 W2 D1 L5 GF9 GA13 for 7 points :D:o .........if you add in the Cup games (they lost 1-0 at Luton in a replay after a 1-1 home draw in the FA Cup), in their last 12 games it’s 3 wins, 2 draws and seven defeats .......... and this despite their much-vaunted strike force of Nardiello, Ryan Lowe, Danny Rose and Danny Mayor; after 9 League games, 20 points (2.22 points per game); the next seven bring them 3 wins and a draw, plus 3 defeats (including a 5-0 stuffing at Shrewsbury, who’ve just extended Bobby Grant’s :D loan to the end of the season – and did you see Billy "Stocky" Kee, having not started a single game or scored a single goal for the Iron, is now at Mansfield on loan? ;) ) ..........10 points in 7 games = 1.43 points per game; the next eight bring a further seven points from 8 games = 0.875 points per game; overall, P24 W11 D4 L9 GF35 GA30 for 37 points and 8th place (1.54 points per game). And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, isn’t promotion form – indeed currently it’s bottom of the table form .................:o:o:o

Bury FC joined the Football League in 1894, giving them the third longest ongoing (continuous) League membership, behind PNE and Notts County ...they played their first game under floodlights on 5th November 1889, losing 5-4 at home to Heywood Central (I imagine the floodlights being either sparklers, or the glow of 6,000 blokes all smoking pipes :) – romantic notion or what?) ........Their record loss appears to be a 10-0 defeat by Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup First Round in 1887, and the height of their achievements in League terms (we all know they won the Cup twice) was 1925/26, when they came 4th in the old Division One :D with 47 points from 42 games, behind Huddersfield (57 points), Arsenal (managed by one Arsenal Wenger) and Sunderland. Those, of course, were the glory days of goalscorers, and Bury’s season included home wins by 8-1 over the Dingles :D, 6-5 against Man City (who were relegated, presumably for the want of loads of Italian and Spanish imports :confused:) and 7-4 against the Blades, but also a 6-1 defeat at the Gunners ............Burnley’s 8-1 defeat wasn’t actually their worst result of that season either :cool: – as well as shipping 6 at Blackburn, Man U and the Blades, they lost 8-3 :o at Man City (see “relegated” above), and 10-0 at Villa :p ..........but did beat Birmingham City 7-1 away! :)

They signed some at the start of the season (“there’ll be some coming in, and some going out”), including James Poole (ex Hartlepool) on non-contract terms, who’s now plying his trade at Dover (and playing football at the weekends :D), and Joe Widdowson (Grimsby, Rochdale, Cobblers), who signed on 6th August, made such an impression that on 29th August he went out on loan to Morecambe for two months :confused:, and on 27th November went out again, this time to the London Borough of Barking Stadium :confused::confused: ..............I can’t help thinking his days are numbered - probably in single figures! :D ..... More recently (ie just now) they’ve LoanSigned Charlton GK Nick Pope (22, 6’ 3”, and one of the few GKs in the League who hasn’t been injured playing for us this season – and Cashy, the answer to your forum question “Who’s going to start in goal for us on Friday?” is “You are!” :p:p:p); they’ve also brought in Bristol City and ex Brighton (300 games between 2003 and 2014) Egyptian international defender Adam El-Abd (30) – Egypt, by the way, are currently 62nd in FIFA rankings, which puts them about 180 places above England :o. As well as those, they ProperSigned Everton’s 20 year-old forward Hallam Hope on New Year’s Day on a 3 ½ year contract; Manager David Flitcroft said of him, “ ...his potential is frightening”; well, maybe it is, David, but not as frightening as the speed with which you’re tumbling down the League :( ....................Famous ex Managers, for your edification, include the Inevitable Neil Warnock ;) ("I’ve been everywhere, Man, I’ve been everywhere ...”), Bob Stokoe (twice), Martin “Burnley” Dobson, and – who remembers him? – Jim Iley, who played over 550 games for Sheffield Wednesday, Spurs, Notts Forest, Newcastle and the Posh as a Left Half :D (this week’s starter for 10 – what number shirt did a left half wear?)

45 goals in all competitions, in 30 games; leading scorers are Daniel Nardiello (ex Red Devil, Exeter etc) with 9, Daniel (Danny) Rose – never been on Broadway in his life, I believe – who came in the summer from Barnsley and has 8, as has Ryan “Methuselah” Lowe :) (who arrived this time via Tranmere; MF Daniel (Danny) Mayor has 6 (is there a naming pattern developing here, do we think? ;) ) ........skipper Craig Jones, Andrew Tutte and Tom Soares have 3 each from MF ..........goals, as they say, from all over the pitch.

Last season it was a goalless draw at ours and a 3-0 embarrassing at theirs; this season they’ve won one out of one against us, but in 2015, as you’ll have noted, we’ve won 100% of our matches :D, and they’ve lost every single game they’ve played :p, and haven’t scored either :p:p:p .............Despite that, they’re 5-4 with William Hills, we’re 2-1, and it’s 11/5 the draw .............but what do they know? :)

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Friday 9th January; it’s a while since we beat them, but we can, in truth, beat anybody in the Division, as can everybody else (except Hartlepool, Tranmere and Carlisle, who are still propping up the League despite having “seasoned” managers – Ronnie Moore, Mickey Adams and Keith Curle ..........goes to show – it’s not your name or your reputation that makes you a good or a bad manager – it’s your results. Isn’t it DAV007? :D

Good luck to everyone! .............. Keep the Faith! .......... And thanks for playing! :)

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