Danny Mayor ran the show as Bury bossed Crewe Alexandra, particularly in the second half, thanks to 2 goals from Jay O’Shea and an equaliser from Caolan Lavery after Chris Porter gave the Alex a third-minute lead, at Gigg Lane yesterday afternoon.
Manager David Artell made one change from Saturday’s home victory against Stevenage with Eddie Nolan missing out due to a calf injury with Corey Whelan replacing him allowing Perry Ng to move to his prefered centre-back position. Nicky Hunt came into the matchday 18 as he was named on the substitutes’ bench.
The opening chance came in the third minute as Porter volleyed home Jordan Bowery’s cross from the right, the striker’s third goal in as many games before Nicky Maynard fired wide minutes later as Lavery played the ex-Alex striker through. The rest of the half saw half-chances for Whelan and Ryan Wintle as the Alex lead at the break.
The equaliser came 5 minutes after the break with Mayor’s effort coming back off the post with Lavery tapping it into an empty net before the attacking midfielder’s next involvement saw him run at George Ray and James Jones with the Alex skipper bringing him down for a penalty that O’Shea converted down the middle as Ben Garratt dived right. The midfielder would add a third with 15 minutes to play as he came in from the Bury left, tucking it underneath Garratt.
The next game sees a trip to Morecambe on Saturday before a home game against Newport the following Saturday.
What have we learnt from this game?
It’s another game where we’ve played alright for the first half of the game and fell away in the second. Losing Greenie just before the break is an obvious disappointment and could be the result of him coming back much sooner than everyone was expecting.