Bury 1 Brentford 1

A dismal match at Gigg Lane to mark Bury’s “football for a fiver” day, as the opportunity to attract some non regular fans to return was wasted by a performance that would barely be worth watching for free.

The first half in particular was a total non event as both teams frequently failed to complete even the most basic passing moves. Bury in particular were misplacing passes all over the place in a lethargic mess of a performance, much to the frustration of the home fans.

Brentford were at least creating some goal scoring chances, including a close range header tipped round the right post by the keeper, and they edged the first half and blocked out any possible opportunity for Bury to threaten. Half time 0-0.

Brentford continued to narrowly edge the game in the beginning of the 2^nd half, and they got a penalty in the 61^st minute. Diagouraga was trying to find space to shoot in the penalty area, and as he turned away from goal he fell to ground over Carrington’s outstretched leg. It was quite soft but the referee probably had to give it. Gary Alexander confidently smashed the penalty into the corner to put the away side 1-0 up.

In the period of play after this Brentford continued to create the better chances, but as the half went on they began to retreat, clearly looking to shut up shop and hang on to the narrow lead.

Bury struggled to break through, and it looked unlikely to happen when Skarz was given a second yellow card, a trip deemed worthy of a second yellow. The tackle was more clumsy than malicious, the home fans particularly irate with this decision with some still feeling aggrieved at the earlier penalty award.

Rather than try to take advantage of their man advantage by looking for the second goal to kill the game, Brentford continued to focus on defending. It appeared to be working, mainly because nothing at all was happening, and then a Peter Sweeney free kick wasn’t cleared, and in a packed penalty area John-Lewis rifled the ball into the net for a surprise 85^th minute Bury equaliser.

Brentford attempted to regain some forward momentum after this, but they seemed unable to push many players forward having so rigidly kept to a defensive system, and the game finished 1-1.

The Bury fans, most of which spent 85 minutes criticising and grumbling at how bad their team were playing, at the end of the match seemed to have completely forgotten anything that had happened before the 85^th minute leveller, as they applauded the team off as if it’d been a cracking fighting display throughout. It hadn’t – it was awful, and personally a relief that only a fiver was wasted on this boring mess of a match.