Bury Town 1-1 Chesham United

[Simon N]

Chesham:

1. Richard Hayward
2. John Kyriacou
3. Sam Ledger
4. Lewis Laws (goal 49 mins)
5. Danny Talbot
6. Mark Lambert (booked 73mins)
7. Dave Fotheringham
8. Steve Wales
9. Leon Archer
10. Darrell Cox (booked 25 mins)
11. Michael Bardle

Subs:
12. Danny Burnell (for Archer 74 mins)
14. Chris Bangura (for Cox 66 mins)
15. Steve Obeng (for Talbot 82 mins)
16. Dom Marsala
17. Jack Pattison


Chesham emerged with a hard-earned point against a Bury side who just missed out on last season’s play-offs. While the home team had their moments and always looked dangerous on the break, Chesham had more of the game and had cause to feel aggrieved at some of the officiating, particularly over a first-half penalty appeal that was turned down.

There were three team changes, Sam Ledger returning in place of Ollie Adedeji, and Leon Archer and Darrell Cox starting in place of Danny Burnell and Chris Bangura. On a pitch that survived a mid-afternoon inspection following heavy rain, the pattern of the game was set early on with Chesham pushing forward. However it was not until the eighteenth minute that they had their first effort on goal, Lewis Laws heading over from Danny Talbot’s corner. Just after the half-hour Bury threatened for the first time with a long cross from Elliott Hunter that Ben Coker headed goalwards but Richard Hayward touched over, then Sam Reed broke through the middle but was denied by a fine tackle from Sam Ledger. As the game opened up Danny Talbot had a long shot saved by home keeper Marcus Garnham, then at the other end Ross Kelly forced Hayward to dive to his left to hold a powerful shot. In the 44th minute a neat move ended with Steve Wales crossing from the right and the Chesham fans behind the goal shouted for handball. From the stand it was difficult to see what happened, but those who were closer to the incident said afterwards that the ball struck a defender on the arm, at a distance where he could have got his arm out of the way, in which the linesman was on that side of the pitch would have seen the incident but gave nothing. Late in the half Steve Wales found Archer in space on the right and his cross was headed wide by Danny Talbot.

Two minutes into the second half Kelly crossed from the right and the ball came through to John Kyriacou at the far post, who attempted to head clear but was forced to stand and watch as the ball looped up and dropped into the far corner of the net. This was the fourth goal that Chesham have conceded in the 47th minute this season, but the lead was to last only two minutes as a quickly-taken throw saw Darrell Cox fire in a shot that Garnham parried, and the ball came to Lewis Laws who fired in from just inside the area. Again Chesham were not helped by the officials when Dave Fotheringham broke clear and was about to take on the goalkeeper but was flagged offside, a terrible decision as Fotheringham was at least two yards onside when the ball was played. Chesham were still on top but Bury had the best chance when Gavin Johnson crossed from the left and Sam Reed had a free header at the far post but nodded over the bar. Another long cross from Kelly was headed wide by Ben Coker, while at the other end Leon Archer broke clear but was brought back for another dubious offside call. Coker then cut in from the left and fired in a shot that flew just wide of the near post, but Chesham came back and Laws sent Steve Wales away down the right and just failed to connect with the resulting low cross. Three minutes from time home defender Tom Bullard, who had been booked just seven minutes before for a foul on Danny Burnell, was shown a second yellow card for a very late challenge. However Bury came closer to scoring late on with Coker just wide with a 30-yard free kick. Deep into stoppage time Bury’s Elliott Hunter fell awkwardly after an innocuous challenge from Danny Burnell and was stretchered off, leaving the home team to play out the final minute with only nine men.