Tuesday 25th October 2022, NWCFL Premier Division

West 0
Bury AFC 3 (Gilboy 20, Wharton 49, Denman 76)
Att: 1,035

West slumped to a heavy defeat at home to Bury AFC.

The meeting between last season’s NWCFL First Division champions was only a contest on paper, as a dispiritingly flat West performance meant visiting keeper Jack Atkinson was barely required to touch the ball.

To add to the gloom, all three goals were preventable from a West perspective, though Bury AFC had enough chances to win comfortably without assistance.

The visitors penned West into their own half from the off and were ahead inside 20 minutes – Lewis Gilboy’s ball towards the far post was allowed to travel all the way through and nestle in Andrew Jones’ net.

A Markell Foulds foray forward resulted in Darren McKnight hitting the wall with a free kick, in what was West’s main attacking contibution in the first period.

But the second half continued in a similar vein, with the game effectively over four minutes after the restart. Ben Wharton was afforded space in the area to direct his header towards goal, with Jones unable to prevent the ball finding the net.

Bury AFC centre-back Joseph Denman completed the scoring with 14 minutes remaining, converting a corner at the near post.

West: A. Jones, Cook, Hancock, McKnight, Hampson, Foulds, Eme, Davis, Elliott, Miller, Lewens. Subs from: Delaney, Dickinson, Taylor, Westall, Swift.

What it means

We drop to 8th in the NWCFL Premier Division, following Congleton Town’s win at home to Prestwich Heys.

What’s next

We now have an 11-day break before our next game, with Saturday’s home match against Kendal Town postponed. We travel to Avro on Saturday 5th November (3pm kick-off).

Chris Rowley reaction