Manchester City 0, Bury 1

YOU couldn't have scripted it better if you'd tried!

This Valentine's Day derby victory contained more romance than a barrowload of sugary greeting cards as the battling Shakers stunned their big money Manchester rivals on their own patch.

Fittingly, it was an avid City fan - Paul Butler - who chose the perfect time and place for his first goal of the campaign to throw Stan Ternent' s men a valuable survival lifeline and end a depressing run of sixteen matches without a win.

That last triumph was over Nottingham Forest early in November, but with this Bury team's scant regard for big reputations it shouldn't really have come as a surprise when the sequence ended down in Moss Side.

The commodities needed in abundance over a tough final third of the season will be organisation, commitment and no little spirit and despite the disappointing run over the past few months, on Saturday's showing at least, Ternent's side look to have plenty of all three.

For the 25,000 tortured souls who regularly follow Frank Clark's megabucks outfit it was just too much to bear as the Shakers, assembled at around £600,000, deservedly took the honours and a crucial three points,

Not a bad effort when you consider that City fielded one player, Lee Bradbury, who cost £3.5 million - more than the complete re-development of Gigg Lane!

Neither Bradbury or the disappointing Uwe Rosler ever looked likely to breach the resolute Bury back line who were simply magnificent from first whistle to last.

Mark Patterson, Nick Daws and Lennie Johnrose worked like Trojans in midfield and, although they found chances thin on the ground,Tony Ellis and Nigel Jemson never stopped closing down defenders with their unselfish running.

But behind them all, it was a red letter day for Shakers keeper Dean Kiely who was up at 5am to rush fiancee Tracey to Fairfield General Hospital where she gave birth to 8lb 5oz son, Mason, two-and-a-half hours later.

If the Bury custodian had the distraction of the new arrival on his mind during the 90 minutes he certainly didn't show it.

Midway through the first half he was on his toes to tip over a Rosler header from Lee Crooks' corner then in the second half comfotably caught under his bar a similar effort from Kit Symons however those chances apart he was rarely overstretched all afternoon.

Indeed, his opposite number Tommy Wright was the busier in the first period.

As early as the ninth minute he had to dive full length to push away an Andy Woodward shot after Daws had sent him racing clear of Jason van Blerk. Then the Irishman pulled off the save of the game in the 24th minute when he went full length to palm away a Butler headed effort that was destined for the bottom corner.

In the 37th minute the hapless Bradbury made a complete hash of a free header from Craig Russell's cross, directing it well wide from six yards, and at the interval the common consensus was that the match had 0-0 written all over it.

But that wasn't to be the case and the breakthrough duly arrived in the 52nd minute.

Patterson's left wing corner was carelessly cleared straight back to him by City's defence and when his measured cross arrived in the box Butler arrived bang on cue to head powerfully down and not even the desperate efforts of Paul Beesley could keep the ball out of the net.

The goal sent the 3,000-plus Bury fans who gave their side magnificent vocal support throughout, ecstatic but had the opposite effect on the City faithful.

Minutes later one disgruntled fan ran on the field to rip up his season ticket while others followed suit from their seats.

The frustration was understandable as it became obvious that their team had neither the ability or heart to overcome a Shakers side that looked a far better bet for First Division survival.

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