Bassett's boys are all out of sorts!

WHEN chairman J. T. Igham unwittingly nicknamed Bury FC 'the Shakers' back in 1892 he must have had glorious nights like this in mind.

First Division leaders Forest with their £10 million all-stars swaggered into town on the back of an eight game unbeaten run but sidled home with nothing to show but hurt pride.

Not that there's anything to be ashamed of losing to this Bury team.

Quite the opposite in fact, and a few other sides with lofty aspirations are sure to come to grief at Gigg in the coming weeks if Stan Ternent's men maintain the level of performance showed on Tuesday evening.

No amount of money can buy the qualities that have shot the Shakers to prominence in recent years.

Commitment, an undying will-to-win allied to no little skill have taken them to a level in the English game that, until recently, many supporters wouldn't have dared dream of.

And when the confidence borne of results like this kicks into the combined psyche of the Men in White who knows how far they could go.

Major shareholder Hugh Eaves said the display was "the best I've seen from the club" and though Ternent chose to play down the result commenting "it's just another three points" he was still mightily impressed with the way his side met the challenge of the table toppers.

"I thought we fully deserved the win, it was a marvellous team performance," he enthused.

"All the players won their individual battles, both goals were excellently taken and we kept them to long distance efforts."

After such a dominant team effort it seems unfair to single out individuals but 13-goal Dutch master Pierre Van Hooijdonk and former Arsenal star Kevin Campbell were superbly marshalled by Chris Lucketti, Paul Butler and Andy Woodward while Lennie Johnrose couldn't have stuck closer to England ace Steve Stone had he climbed into his shorts with him!

Peter Swan opened the scoring in the 16th minute when David Johnson played an inch-perfect right wing cross and the big man darted in front of £2 million former Tranmere full-back Alan Rogers to head inside the post. The goal stunned the 1200 Forest fans massed behind Dean Kiely's goal and had Nick Daws not miscued a first time effort, after David Beasant had spilled another Johnson cross seven minutes later, there might have been more for them to be moan about.

Two powerful efforts from outside the box from England ace Steve Stone were the best Forest could muster in reply.

The first poleaxed teammate Kevin Campbell while the second roared over the bar to end up several rows from the rear of the stand.

If Bassett expected his half-time team talk to change matters he was to be sorely disappointed.

Two early crosses exposed a lack of understanding between Beasant and his defenders but they were nothing to the misunderstanding that doubled the Shakers' lead after 63 minutes.

An innocuous high ball deep into the Forest half should have been meat and drink for Rogers but the unfortunate defender, who wound up a dismal evening booked and substituted, only directed his header into the path of Johnson who kept his head to gleefully shoot past Beasant.

And it could have been three if the much-travelled custodian hadn't superbly clawed a fine Daws chip to safety after a flowing move involving Swan and Ian Hughes.

Forest chief Dave Bassett thought that second goal was the killer for his side but spared defender Alan Rogers any criticism.

"Once they went 2-0 up Bury seemed to get the impetus to fight more and we never looked like scoring.

"But I'm not going to make Alan a scapegoat, everyone makes errors and I'm sure he'll learn from his."

BURY: Kiely 8, Hughes 8, Woodward 8, Daws 8, Lucketti 8, Butler 9, Gray 8, Johnson 8, Swan 8, Johnrose 9, Battersby 8. Subs: Jepson (for Battersby 84), Armstrong (for Johnson 84) and Peake.

NOTTINGHAM FOREST: Beasant, Lyttle, Rogers, Cooper, Chettle, Hjelde, Stone, Gemmill, Van Hooijdonk, Campbell, Bart-Williams. Subs: Woan (for Rogers 83), Pascolo and Moore.

ATTENDANCE: 6,137 (1,242 Forest)

REFEREE: Mr Paul Robinson (Hull)

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