Bury shake up Norwich with famous Gigg Lane success

Published on Tuesday 15 January 2008 22:49

MANAGERLESS Bury wrote a fairytale chapter into their 123-year history with a momentous and thoroughly deserved FA Cup 2-1 third-round replay victory against Coca-Cola Championship outfit Norwich City.

The cash-strapped League Two outfit – who sacked manager Chris Casper and director of football Keith Alexander the previous day – went ahead through defender Ben Futcher in the 18th minute.

Leading goalscorer Andy Bishop applied a neat finish to claim his 12th of the season shortly after the hour mark to secure a famous win for The Shakers and set up a fourth-round trip to Southampton.

The giantkilling act left Norwich manager Glenn Roeder and his players seriously humiliated, and substitute Dion Dublin's scrappy late strike ultimately counted for nothing. But this was Bury's night, and they could potentially earn up to 100,000 from their trip to Southampton, serving as a massive boost to the club's coffers.

Caretaker manager Chris Brass also deserves a mention for guiding the Lancashire outfit to a success which was rapturously received by the jubilant Bury fans in a crowd of 4,146.

Former York coach Brass, who has been working with the Centre of Excellence at Gigg Lane, was only confirmed as caretaker on the morning of the game.

He could not have asked any more from his players from the first whistle to the last.

In the 17th minute Bishop volleyed over the crossbar from a vicious left-wing cross by Nicky Adams, but less than a minute later, Bury were ahead.

A deep cross from the right by David Buchanan was not dealt with by Norwich goalkeeper, the former Celtic No 1 David Marshall, who succeeded only in colliding with Gary Doherty and allowing the ball to run loose. Futcher – at 6ft 7in the tallest player on the field – could hardly believe his good fortune as he gleefully swept the ball into the back of the net from six yards.

Bury remained a threat on the counter-attack and in the 61st minute they killed the tie.

An excellent slide-rule pass down the left flank from Adams found Bishop who clipped a superb left-foot finish past Marshall.

Norwich came back strongly and their pressure finally told when Dublin stabbed in but, despite several late scares, Bury held on for an outstanding victory.

Steven Gerrard scored a hat-trick as Liverpool cruised to a 5-0 win over Luton Town at Anfield, although Rafael Benitez's side had to wait till a minute before the break to take the lead through Ryan Babel. Sami Hyypia was the other Liverpool player on the scoresheet.

Luton did receive some good news before the game when it emerged that a consortium led by former television presenter Nick Owen had been given the green light to complete a takeover of the club.

Robbie Keane's 15th minute goal proved was enough to give Tottenham a 1-0 win in their fourth round replay at Reading.

Keane led the attack as Dimitar Berbatov had flu – and his goal put him one away from a century for Spurs – while Jermain Defoe could have added a second just before the break but Adam Federici saved well at his near post.

In other fourth round replays Millwall beat Walsall 2-1 while West Brom headed into extra-time after Charlton pegged them back to 2-2 after 90 minutes at The Hawthorns.