Birmingham CityM-I1, BuryM-I3

IF you hadn't seen this game with your own eyes, you would never have believed it.

Promotion-chasing Birmingham, thrashed in their own back yard by lowly Bury? Dream on!

Yet three sensational strikes, right out of the top drawer, stunned Trevor Francis's high-flyers and in turn fired the Shakers from the foot of the Division One table clear of the relegation zone.

How quickly things can change in the space of 90 minutes!

If ever there was a result to boost Bury's survival chances, then this was it.

Birmingham, aiming for their third win in the space of a week, had conceded only nine goals at home all season until this match.

Suddenly, that record was thrown out of the window by a side which had failed to score more than two goals in a league game all campaign.

A first half beauty from Tony Rigby was added to after the break by cracking strikes from Mark Patterson and Tony Ellis - his third in four games.

As well as the three majestic goals and the heroics of the oustanding 'keeper Dean Kiely, City played an equally important role in their own downfall.

Their shooting was nothing short of abysmal. Only the last of their 18 shots found the net and that came in the final seconds of the match.

They had a number of early opportunities to take the lead with Bryan Hughes heading over the bar from a third minute corner and Martin Grainger firing straight into Kiely's arms soon after.

The Shakers enjoyed a good spell of chances too with Patterson nearly finishing a move he started with Ellis and Jemson but his powerful shot narrowly missed the target.

Then came the first of three magical moments which stunned the 20,000 crowd into silence.

Rigby, fouled 30 metres out by City skipper Gary Ablett, stuck around for the free kick. Patterson flicked it up for him before he blasted the ball over the wall and past 'keeper Ian Bennett, still rooted to his line, for his first goal of the season. It's a trick which Rigby, in the team for the injured Andy Woodward, has pulled out of the bag in previous seasons and what better way to stake a claim for another start against Swindon tomorrow.

City could have levelled matters within three minutes when Bury's goalscorer turned villain at the other end.

Rigby's trip on the tricky Peter Ndlovu, though no worse than that of Ablett minutes earlier, earned him a yellow card - much to the anger of manager Ternent who later blasted referee Michael Bailey for his performance.

Grainger stepped up for the free kick and rattled the cross bar with his shot from 25 yards.

The rest of the half belonged to Kiely as he produced one top save after another, denying Grainger twice along with Ndlovu and Dele Adebola.

Martin O'Connor summed up a nightmare evening for the home side when he blasted wide of an open target at the close of the first period.

Bury had battled gamely in the first half, but what was to come was beyond everyone's wildest expectations - including those, no doubt, of rivals Manchester City, who went next-to-bottom of the league after this result.

Kiely started where he had left off, by thwarting an early effort from Hughes, before Patterson showed his true class by chipping into the corner of the net from 25 yards following some poor ball control on the edge of the box by Jon McCarthy.

At the other end, the Bury defence was holding firm with Chris Lucketti halting Adebola in his tracks as he prepared to unleash a shot from close range.

On 72 minutes, Ellis watched a shot curl agonisingly wide of the far post, but he made amends within two minutes when he slotted home Bury's third in style - also his third for the club - from the left hand side of the box.

This proved the last straw for the humiliated Birmingham fans who proceded to fight amongst themsleves in the stand.

Their frustration grew as they watched both Adebola and Hughes foiled once more by the inspirational Kiely, before they were given brief cause to celebrate when substitute Michael Johnson grabbed their side's consolation from a last minute corner.

It was nowhere near enough to stop Bury registering their first double of the season.

Pinch yourselves; the Shakers might just have turned the corner!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.