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Tuesday 8th September 2009

Great Yarmouth Town 6, Team Bury 2 

The Bloaters’ strikers came good in this first ever meeting with the young Bury Town academy side. Team Bury, new to the Ridgeons League this season, were enthusiastic and energetic but were vulnerable to the long ball down the flanks and lacked the necessary nous to combat Yarmouth’s experience at this level. 

Stewart Roach notched his first hat-trick of the season, Liam Bartley bagged a brace and was unlucky not to also claim a threesome and defender/midfielder Craig Roberts weighed in with his second of the season. 

Manager Paul Tong was not without his problems pre-match, with five first-choice players all unavailable: Adey Ager, Marcus Saunders and Alan Darby were all missing from the defence, Dominic Smith from the midfield and Jake Reed from the strike force.

The news of Ager’s injury, sustained at Woodbridge, was that he will be out for several weeks with ligament damage; Saunders will also be absent for two three weeks but Darby will be fit again shortly; Smith and Reed are expected back again this weekend. 

As the match unfolded though, Yarmouth turned in their best performance and result for nearly two and a half years. There were early chances for both sides before Liam Bartley set the tone for the evening with the opening goal after just four minutes when he turned in an Olly Savage cross with a sweetly struck effort.  The visitors’ inability to deal with the long ball was then demonstrated as a Michael Hilton clearance found Adam Sewell who crossed for Roach to shoot narrowly wide. Another ball out by Hilton was then taken by Scott Woodcock and led to a shot by Martyn Magee that met the same fate. 

Roach was really on top of his game but headed wide from a Savage corner before he doubled the advantage in the 29^th minute with a superbly executed left-footed volley from ten yards off another Savage cross. 

There was the odd scare for Yarmouth as Bury kept their heads up but the re-jigged defence, in which Toby Gorbould had a sound game, remained in control. Bartley gave the Bloaters a comfortable 3-0 cushion at half time when he knocked home a near-post cross from Woodcock in the 43^rd minute. 

Two goals in the first three minutes of the second half banished any thoughts of a Bury recovery: both were identical headers from corners, and both were scored by that man Roach.  

But Yarmouth did not then settle for that. Magee took a terrific 30-yard effort that whistled over the bar, then Woodcock ran though the middle but his shot hit the post and rebounded clear. 

Bury pulled one back when substitute Matt Chaplin lobbed Hilton in a rare breakaway on the hour but, after a triple Yarmouth substitution amongst which Martin Goulder made his competitive debut, Roberts made it a half-dozen in a scramble in the visitors goalmouth in the 70^th minute. 

Looking for his hat-trick, Bartley headed over and then had a tangle with ‘keeper Fred Howe which saw the Bury man eventually claim the ball. Both teams kept the entertainment going until the very end: in added time, Sewell brought a great save out of Howe and Luke Ingram scored Bury’s second. 

Yarmouth – M Hilton, B Junior, O Savage, C Roberts, T Gorbould, G Palmer, L Bartley, M Magee (M Goulder 68), S Roach (F Vide 68), S Woodcock (V Formoso 68), A Sewell. Unused Sub: M Thompson.

Referee – P Quick (Ipswich)

Attendance – 71