Bury Town 0-4 U's: A Maz-ing grace
"Supersub" isn't a job description you hear very much these days. Its most famous exponent was David Fairclough, who frequently came off the bench for the Liverpool side of the late 1970s and early 1980s to grab vital goals, but was rarely considered good enough to get into the starting line-up. The awkward-looking, gangly and frankly ugly ginger hitman was, in fairness, playing for the best team of its generation, so he might have been expected to get plenty of opportunities to score, especially with fresh legs against tiring opposition. But he never cemented a starting place for himself in eight years at Anfield, up against such greats as Keegan, Dalglish and Rush, and enjoyed notably less success in a nomadic subsequent career that saw him playing in a succession of footballing backwaters like Canada, Switzerland, Belgium and Wigan.
In those days only one, then two substitutes were allowed, so they tended to stand out, whereas today the ever-increasing number on the bench, the proliferation of squad numbers and a tendency towards squad rotation has caused the "supersub" banner to all but die out. But on Tuesday night at Ram Meadow, United's sub was very super indeed and, from Martin Ling's remarks afterwards, he may be required to fulfil that role on a regular basis this season.
It is always a pleasure to visit Bury Town's tidy and well-kept home at the back of a capacious car park, and the country's fourth oldest non-League club (formed 1872) has never been so ambitious, having won the Zamaretto (Southern) League Division One Midlands last season with over 100 points and now been moved to the Ryman League Premier alongside another forward-looking Suffolk club United have played recently, Lowestoft Town.
Bury's welcoming clubhouse and club shop were busy with a good turnout of U's fans amongst a crowd of 370 on a pleasantly warm August evening for a meeting of their respective first teams, who both wore their change strips, red for the hosts and the new white third strip for the visitors, everyone sporting their squad numbers except youngster Jonathan Thorpe and trialist who has now been offered a contract, Wayne Gray.
Starting line-up: Naisbitt; Thorpe, Coulson, Partridge, Jennings; Ives, Miller, Russell; Gray, Wright, Willmott.
Martin Ling again sent out a team in a 4-3-3 formation, its make-up dictated by the absence due to injury of Conal Platt, Paul Carden, Brian Saah, Kevin Roberts, Daryl Clare and Rory McAuley, although Dave Partridge was back from illness. Adam Marriott and Simon Brown were the only substitutes of the seven named who had not played at Godmanchester the previous evening.
Bury, under the managerial team of ex-U's players Richard Wilkins and Richard Skelly, named a team which included former Abbey youth products Sam Reed and Callum Kearns, and former United trialists Roscoe Hipperson and Mark Coulson. The matchday programme covered all four of Bury's home pre-season friendlies, in which they had lost 1-0 to Ipswich in front of a four figure crowd, and defeated neighbours Walsham-Le-Willows 5-0, another of that growing band of ambitious village sides with financial backing working their way up the Pyramid, and who attracted Gavin Johnson from Bury during the close season. Colchester are last up next Wednesday.
A lively start saw half-chances at either end, James Jennings having a shot blocked then Scott Chaplin heading over from Bury's first corner, and on 8 Simon Russell tried a long-range blaster but sent his shot soaring in the direction of the sugar beet factory.
Two minutes later good work by Danny Wright, more nimble on his feet than you might expect, won United a corner and when Jennings' flag-kick was half-cleared to Sam Ives in the D, his well-struck shot looked goalbound until it was deflected away by his own team-mate Adam Miller.
Lee Reed slashed off target for the hosts, then Russell had another go but still could not keep his shot down. His next effort on 17 at least brushed the side netting as United continued to huff and puff without quite finding their stride. Nine minutes later a Robbie Willmott shot ricocheted its way diagonally across goal to Wright at the far post, but he was stretching for it and spooned over the top from close in.
On 28, though, the U's took the lead. After some midfield possession Wright laid it off to Miller 25 yards out, and his low, accurate shot arrowed into the bottom far corner with one bounce. Fine strike: 1-0.
Bury hit back almost immediately with a thunderbolt of a shot from Sam Reed which forced a quite brilliant save from Danny Naisbitt, flinging himself to his left and using a strong hand to palm it over the bar. The ensuing corner produced a bout of pinball, some pat-a-cake from Naisbitt and after a couple of blocks United finally cleared their lines.
Back came the U's as Wright chased a through ball down the right channel, and when keeper Marcus Garnham hesitated, he flicked the ball past him but was crowded out by keeper and defender. The impressive Wright had a shot blocked on 35 and United's industrious midfield three had a good grip on the game, although Gray was struggling to make much of an impact ahead of them, and full-backs Thorpe and Jennings both provided good forward support down the flanks, the rookie right-back looking like calmness personified.
Bury still threatened occasionally, especially from set pieces, and Wright offered invaluable aerial assistance to his defence. And after a final brace of corners for United, the whistle signalled the end of a busy and competitive first half which had provided a useful rust-shedding runout for both sides.
Bury made three changes for part two, replacing Garnham, Coulson and Michael Steward with Craig Nurse, Ashley Sloots and Nick Pope, goalkeeping brother of Mildenhall sticksman Josh, who faced United a couple of weeks ago.
But it was United who made the livelier restart when the extremely promising Thorpe overlapped to the byline, pulled it back and found Wright, whose close range shot was blocked away by a defender's leg in the six-yard box.
Former Histon striker Kieran Leabon almost caught Naisbitt unawares on 53 with a long-range shot which grazed the outside of the post, then a further home change saw Chris McLoughlin replace Kearns. Five minutes later Gray, who had covered a lot of grass but had not managed so much as an attempt on goal, was withdrawn in favour of Adam Marriott… supersub.
Within three minutes Maz had doubled United's lead. Jennings laid it back for Ives to the left of the box, his cross to the far post was headed up into the air by a defender, Wright won the second header and guided it to the mercurial U's number 19, who was faster than anyone else to latch onto the ball and lash it first time past Pope from eight yards out. 2-0.
Sam Nunn came on for Tom Bullard as Bury gave their squad an airing and another free-kick caused more unease in the United defence. Willmott now stationed himself slightly deeper wide left so that the visitors were effectively playing a 4-4-2 with the classic 'big man, little man' combination up front. Well it worked for the Two Ronnies…
On 69 the tireless Miller tried his luck from a good 35 yards, and his superb strike was screaming under the bar until pawed over by Pope. Three minutes later, however, the keeper was beaten again by United's Little and Large attack. Wright picked up possession outside the area, took on and beat Nunn with more nifty footwork, strength and pace, and once at the byline he pulled it back for Marriott, again quicker and more alert than Hipperson, to nip in and poke tidily past Pope from close in with the outside of his foot. 3-0.
The subs kept coming for the hosts, Archie Wilson for Russell Short, but Martin Ling resisted the temptation to make any more changes, letting his players get more minutes together under their collective belt. On 75 a well-rehearsed corner routine saw Jennings' cross find Josh Coulson sneaking in at the far post, but he blazed over from mere yards out: a defender's finish.
Ten minutes from time the goal glut continued. Jennings picked up possession the best part of forty yards out and wasted no time in hammering a magnificent dipping strike towards Pope, who could only scoop it away. Marriott, anticipating where others merely reacted, had already started running in when Jennings had let fly, and he was in perfect position to control, skip casually past the keeper and roll the ball home to complete a 19-minute hat-trick. 4-0.
It was his second hat-trick for the first team after his four goals at Cherry Hinton last pre-season, the first three of which had come in the same time frame. The last U's player to score three in one half was Steve Butler in a 7-2 win at Cardiff in April 1994, while the last United man to grab a faster trio was Steve Pyle with three in 11 minutes in a 4-2 home win over Hartlepool in August 1985.
Bury tried to respond with another almighty scramble from a corner, but again the visitors muddled through, and they saw the match through to a comfortable end.
Overall it had been a useful and confidence-boosting evening against decent opposition, with the return to goalscoring form of Marriott the obvious standout, especially as goals have been so hard to come by this pre-season. Wright impressed as a convincing line leader, Miller was commanding with good support from Ives and Russell, Thorpe and Jennings made a mightily promising full-back pairing, and the defence will be all the stronger for the return of Brian Saah. If the rest of the squad can get fit for Saturday week, it will be all systems go. And five supersubs would be nice!
Statto Corner
Abbey United first met Bury Town on 8th October 1927, losing 3-2 at the Celery Trenches in the Bury & District League. The 'Wasps' were nominally a Cambs League Division One club, and for the 1927-28 season they decided to withdraw their reserve side from the Cambs League Division 3 (Section B) and entered them in the Bury & District League instead.
It transpired that the Bury League was stronger than Division One of the Cambs League, so when fixtures clashed for both leagues, United fielded their first team in the former competition and their reserves in the latter. When they lost Cambs games to Chatteris and St Ives that they had been expected to win, all hell broke loose at the Cambs FA, who fined the club £5 and warned them not to field a weakened side again.
United duly gave up on the seven-team Bury League and only fulfilled a total of five fixtures, for which they were deducted two points, leaving them bottom of the table, although they would still have finished above Sudbury Town, who played 11 games in those erratic times, had they not lost those points.
The clubs did not meet again until United joined the Eastern Counties League in 1951. In that first season the U's beat Bury 3-0 at the Abbey on Christmas Day, then lost the return match on Boxing Day 3-1. In the seven seasons before United departed for the Southern League, they did not lose to Bury again, winning all of their home games and winning three and drawing three away. Their biggest win was 7-1 in 1954-55, while the largest recorded crowd was 4,100 for a 5-3 Abbey victory in August 1956.
The U's also defeated Bury 3-1 in a home game in 1956 staged to raise money for the Hungarian Relief Fund, and the clubs won one tie each in the East Anglian Cup in 1955 and 1960 respectively. They also met in the FA Cup of 1961-62 and 1962-63, the U's winning 3-2 at home then 2-0 away.
The clubs' ways parted again and since then they have only met in friendlies, in 1986, 1989, 1995, 1997, 2006 and in January this year before Tuesday night. United won 3-0 at a freezing Ram Meadow on 20th January with goals from Lee Phillips (2) and Blaine Hudson, and 2-1 in August 2006, scorers Robbie Willmott and trialist Warren McBean.
Richard Wilkins scored seven goals in 96 games (plus 3 as sub) in all competitions for the U's after joining from Colchester for a transfer fee of £65,000 in July 1990, John Beck's only new signing that season. Although he was a skilful passing midfield player, he was forbidden by the Route One merchant from passing the ball through the middle or making individual forward runs, his job simply to spray the ball out to the wings and use his prodigious long throw to bomb the ball into the box.
Wilkins defended the system, though, saying Glenn Hoddle 'hit more 70-yard passes than anyone else,' but agreed that it was the quality of the players at his disposal that made Beck's system work at the Abbey where it was less successful elsewhere; but ultimately his application of the system became too rigid and eventually it cost him his job.
Wilkins broke his leg on a rain-drenched first day of the season at Tranmere in 1992 and only played seven more times for the U's, falling out of favour and eventually leaving for Hereford, his last game in black'n'amber a 3-0 defeat at Rotherham in March 1994.A neck injury finished his career while back at Colchester in March 2000, but next season he joined Bury Town as player-manager and has been there ever since.
By contrast his assistant, Richard Skelly, made only two appearances for the U's at left-back in January 1994. Signed from Newmarket Town, he subsequently moved on to Northampton then moved back to non-League, including spells at Cambridge City and Histon.
Roscoe Hipperson was a King's Lynn player when he turned out as a trialist for the U's in a 1-1 draw at Hornchurch in August 1996. He went on to enjoy a long and distinguished career at Histon.
Abbey youth product Sam Reed was awarded squad number 31 at the start of the 2004-05 season, but he never got beyond friendlies for the U's and moved on to Newmarket and Cambridge City, Tom Beech taking over the number 31 shirt.
Callum Kearns also came through the United youth system, but his first team experience was limited to a friendly at St Albans in September 2004 and he went on to join Soham Town Rangers.
Mark Coulson started three games as a trialist for the U's in pre-season 2005, scoring on his debut in a 4-2 win at AFC Sudbury, but he did not win a professional contract and went on to enjoy a nomadic non-League career which has taken in both Cambridge City and Histon amongst others.
Player Ratings
Naisbitt 7. Assured display topped with one quite outstanding save.
Thorpe 8. Incredibly mature for one so young, Jonathan did not waste a ball all evening and Ling should have no qualms about using him at Wrexham if required.
Coulson 6. Good, solid effort.
Partridge 6. Unspectacular but reliable.
Jennings 8. Splendid as ever and produced an extraordinary long-range power shot which led to Marriott's third goal.
Ives 7. Energetic in the engine room.
Miller 8. Good passing, box-to-box work and fierce shooting. First name on the team sheet.
Russell 7. Lively and determined.
Willmott 6. Relatively quiet after some fine previous pre-season performances.
Gray 6. Put the work in, but never looked close to scoring.
Wright 8. Quality display, demonstrating pace, power and skill we never thought he had at Histon. Set up Marriott's first two goals.
Marriott 9. Fantastic.
Match Summary
A keenly contested friendly took off like a rocket when Adam Marriott was introduced and notched an exciting, well-taken hat-trick inside 19 minutes. Plenty of encouraging individual displays, although the jury is still out on that 4-3-3 formation.
Man of the Match
Adam Marriott. A cut above everyone else with utterly lethal finishing; his season starts here.
Ref Watch
Stewart 7. Barely noticeable, high praise indeed for a ref.
Soundtrack of the Day
Mark Ronson & Business Intl "Bang Bang Bang"
Andrew's previous match reports
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