Next Up: Bury FC at Home

With Alan Gow’s late goal rescuing a deserved point for City at Wycombe on Tuesday night, Paul Tisdale’s side will hope to build on this and arrest an alarming run of home form with the visit of Bury. City emerged from a bruising encounter largely unscathed, Liam Sercombe looked the most “damaged” having had his ankle clattered by a horrendous challenge, but he showed no ill-effects from this. Danny Butterfield completed 90 minutes without problems so he’ll hope to keep his place, while another selection headache will be over whether to retain the Coles/Bennett partnership at the back or to recall Pat Baldwin. Sam Parkin and Arron Davies both made an impact off the bench and may hope they have done enough to start, although it would be harsh on David Wheeler in particular to lose his place, Wheeler having looked one of City’s brighter players at Wycombe before his withdrawal.

Bury’s return to League Two has been somewhat traumatic to say the least. Apparently broke during the summer, a change at the top eased the financial pressure but it meant then manager Kevin Blackwell had to rebuild his squad virtually from scratch. It was a formula that proved unsuccessful, costing Blackwell his job, and in his place, for the time being at least, is the very fondly remembered former City striker Ronnie Jepson. What Jepson appears to have done in recent games is made the Shakers difficult to break down, and they enter Saturday’s match on the back of a four-match unbeaten run in all competitions, albeit with only one win – 1-0 over Hartlepool on Tuesday night – to show for it. The goal that night was scored by Daniel Nardiello, who was somewhat surprisingly allowed to leave Rotherham to join one of his former clubs on loan, and Nardiello will no doubt be busting a gut to remind City supporters what he is capable of. Other players to look out for include 5-goal top scorer Anton Forrester and experienced midfielder Tom Soares.

It is in the FA’s laws that if City and Bury aren’t in the same division, then they shall meet at Gigg Lane in the FA Cup, with Bury the winners. However, as the sides are both in League Two this season, that didn’t happen. Considering both clubs have hovered around the lower divisions for most of their recent history, it’s perhaps surprising that this is only the 33rd Football League meeting between the teams and it is Bury who have a big advantage, with 17 wins to City’s 8 (7 draws). The last meeting was in last season’s FA Cup, with League One Bury beating League Two City 1-0. In 2011/12, when both sides were in League One, it was the home sides emerging triumphant – Bury won 2-0 at Gigg Lane (Bishop and a Matt Oakley OG) before City edged Bury out 3-2 at the Park (Archibald-Henville, Nardiello and Logan for City, Amoo and Eastham for Bury).

Match Officials: http://www.exeweb.com/2013/11/27/match-officials-bury-at-home/