Bury V Garstang 20-26

In a bottom of the table clash, Bury were to play host to Garstang at the Radcliffe Rd ground. Following a spate of disappointing results, the home side were looking to get their first points of the season against a team who have been having similar fortunes in recent weeks.
Bury knew that it would be a close game and that they had to start well, this however didn't happen and Garstang opened the scoring with a try that kicked the Rams into gear! Dominating in the set piece, the Bury pack were able to control passages of play and through Lee Slingsby, Alan Dobson and Graham Bigg each scrum was being won and ball was fed effectively to the backs through Tom Smith and fly half Will Smith.
Bury were to reply quickly and through power play in the forwards, the back row of Jonny Allen, Stuart Swinburn and Ed Watkins were able to canter up the pitch and with some neat interchanges, carve open the visitors defence for Dan Gleeballs to score. Tom Smith was able to convert with a confident kick and give the home side the lead.
The visitors were to reply with a break against the run of play and although centres Chris Potts and George Kelly were desperately trying to recover with numerous incredible tackles, Gartang were able to regain the lead.
The pattern of this game was to again continue and with more power play from Lee Slingsby in the Garstang five metres, Jonny Allens quick thinking allowed him to collect the ball from the back of the ruck and reach out and play the ball in a small gap left by the visitors defence in the corner. The difficult conversion was narrowly missed by Smith and sent Bury into the half time interval with the narrowest of advantages.
After half time the visitors were to again challenge the Ram's defence and with some intricate play were able to find a way past the tough tackling of Dom Bennett, Alex English and Cameron Bagnall.
In what was now proving to be a game on a knife edge, Bury were to gain a slender lead again with a penalty from the boot of Tom Smith, from just over the half way line. And from a similar position, a few moments later, the home side - chasing a bonus point- opted to kick for the corner. The Bury pack were able to clinically execute the line out with a clean catch from Jonny Allen and the powerhouse Israr Asif and Mark Blain adding the muscle, Ed Watkins was able to peel from the back of the rolling maul and place the ball unchallenged to the left of Gartang's posts.
Again Garstang came back at Bury and to reduce the home side's lead to just a point with a matter of minutes remaining. With tension high, the Bury team were to be dealt the cruelest of blows. As the kicked over ball was caught and fed out to the Bury backs, a misjudgement caused an awkward bounce which was pounced upon by the alert Garstang chasers allowing for a clear run in under the Bury posts.
Although Bury picked up a losing bonus point, it was little consolation for the efforts and performance of the home side in such a tight contest.
Bury now travel to Hutton next Saturday 17th October for a 3pm kick off.