MORECAMBE 2, SHAKERS 1: Morecame gained the psychological advantage over the Shakers ahead of their Johnstone's Paint Trophy semi-final with victory in the league.
The two sides meet again in four weeks with a place in the area final at stake, and Chris Casper will be hoping his side get into their stride much quicker than they did on Saturday.
Two goals down at the break, Bury improved in the second-half and got back into the game when Andy Bishop stabbed home his eighth goal of the season.
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But despite piling on the pressure late on, they couldn't find an equaliser and slipped to only their second defeat in their last 13 games.
"We're not going to win every game," admitted a philosophical Casper after the match. "We were poor early on and gave ourselves a lot to do in order to get back into the game. It got better in the second half, and we probably deserved something out of it on the balance of play - but we can't feel too down about it. The lads have been outstanding recently."
Morecambe's first owed as much to the Shakers' failure to clear their own lines as the home side's opportunism. Twiss's first cross was cleared straight back to him, allowing the former Leigh RMI man to send a better ball in, flicked on by David Artell and stabbed home by skipper James Bentley.
The Shrimps soon doubled their advantage, and there was much to admire as Twiss cut in from the right before hammering a shot past Provett from the edge of the box.
Morecambe could have extended their advantage before the break. Artell had a free-kick tipped away by Provett and Damien Allen should have done better with his header after Garry Hunter's jinking run and cross from the byline.
And former Shakers favourite, Jon Newby, came within a whisker of a third goal as he headed Twiss's cross on to the crossbar within five minutes of the restart.
The introduction of Nicky Adams and Andy Mangan just before the hour sparked Bury into life, and it was the former Accrington striker who registered his side's first shot on target after some tenacious work from Richie Baker.
Mangan had a penalty appeal turned down after he fell under a challenge from Lewis, but the Shakers man soon got his own back, so to speak, as his no-nonsense challenge left the Shrimps keeper prostrate after he had done well to parry Adams' wicked volley. Bishop also had a penalty shout turned away by referee, Rob Shoebridge, but his luck changed on 76 minutes when he stabbed home from six yards when Lewis parried Ben Futcher's header into his path.
Bury poured forward from there and substitute, Liam Hughes - starting his first-ever league game after his arrival from Wolves - led the fight with two fine efforts which were well dealt with by Lewis.
With two minutes to go, the England Under-20 international stopper nearly blotted his copybook when he allowed Paul Scott's looping header to drop out of his grasp before squeezing it over the bar.
But Morecambe held on through five minutes of added time to claim victory in the first-ever competitive game between the two sides.
I over heard KA talking to Casper and he wasnt happy about the team selection against Morcombe. He said if we had started with adams and mangan 'We would of got something from the f&%$*@g game'!!! Obviously not happy.
I over heard KA talking to Casper and he wasnt happy about the team selection against Morcombe. He said if we had started with adams and mangan 'We would of got something from the f&%$*@g game'!!! Obviously not happy.
Posted by: Grant Mcbriar, Sheffield on 12:06pm Mon 26 Nov 07
That obvious eh? well to me Casper is still the monkey and KA aught to take the reins full time as Casper's tactics are as usual clueless, i guess he will say Adams needs a rest after his international exploits in mid-week, but why does he never play Buchanan, the lad scores 3 goals for NI and he's over looked agan, i think there must be a personality clash between some of his questionable sellections for the first team, keep up the good work Keith we know you are the power behind the club.
That obvious eh? well to me Casper is still the monkey and KA aught to take the reins full time as Casper's tactics are as usual clueless, i guess he will say Adams needs a rest after his international exploits in mid-week, but why does he never play Buchanan, the lad scores 3 goals for NI and he's over looked agan, i think there must be a personality clash between some of his questionable sellections for the first team, keep up the good work Keith we know you are the power behind the club.
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