Devs vs Bury

Looking to make it two wins from two, the Development Team made the trip over to Bury Grammar, a team that championed Division 2 last season. We set out aiming to hit back after last seasons results there and continue our positive momentum from our victory over Old Rivingtonians.

The game was fiercely competitive, as it always is for this local derby, good aggressive challenges came flying from both sides - and strong assertive phases of play from both teams saw the fixture well balanced and in good spirit.

Bury broke the deadlock in the first half, after a quick counter attack the ball dropped to their midfielder at around 25 yards out - striking the ball clean and along the floor, it found its way past our goalkeeper. It was an impressive finish and well taken chance.

At half time we reviewed our performance collectively and management shifted systems and a double substitution.

The changes made a difference as in the second half we saw a well worked move with triangle passing patterns result in a Simon Riley shot finding the roof of the net after top work from Raza Hassan and Tom Dullenty. The game carried on evenly and both teams landing relentless pressure in turn. In the 90th minute of the game, Roman won the ball high and played in a pass to Craig Kirby - our number ten gained composure, dropped the shoulder and faked to shoot successfully which saw him skip past three defenders. As he was pulling the trigger the game-deciding late challenge, from the Bury defender, came in to stop him releasing his shot and subsequently the ref blew for a penalty. Hayden Lewis slammed the ball into the roof of the net, impressive mentality to not feel the pressure.

Now 2-1 up with time all but over, we did not rest on any laurels and we pressed their defense to block them playing out and once Simon Riley dispossed their CB and was 1-on-1 with their GK there was only one result. 3-1 and game over.

Performances across the team were impressive, excellent graft from our defenders and midfielders and good technical ability from the forwards.

MOTM: Simon Riley & Raza Hassan.

Bury 1-3 Devs