Keswick travelled to Bury with a weakened side due to injuries, illness and other commitments but from the opening exchanges you wouldn’t have been able to tell. Keswick started the much brighter side attacking Bury’s ‘D’ down both flanks with Barnes and Chippendale both having good chances to open the scoring. Keswick struggled to find the killer pass that would unlock the Bury goal line - ultimately they paid the price when a stray pass in midfield was pounced upon by a bury player who played in the centre forward to create a one on one with the Keswick keeper. 1-0 to Bury.
Conceding a goal knocked the wind out of Keswick’s sails, after such good play in the opening exchanges. This was added to when a mistake from a Keswick side-line ball was intercepted by a Bury striker. The Bury player was able to find his strike partner once again whose miss struck shot deceived the Keswick keeper making it 2-0 - Bury only having two attacks so far in the game.
Keswick stuck to the task and continued to attack the Bury goal but all the chances were squandered.
After half time it was much of the same with Keswick driving forward but the quality of the final ball just wasn’t there. Short corners created good opportunities for Jack Shaw and Rikki Barnes but the Bury defence stood strong.
A well worked short corner gave Keswick a break through. Swanston found Proctor at top D who managed to pick out Barnes at back post forcing Bury’s defender to block the ball with his body on the goal line conceding a penalty flick. The resulting Flick was then converted calmly by Shaw.
Keswick could smell blood and started to push for the equaliser with probing runs down the flanks from Swanston and Jackson but once again a combination of poor quality final ball and missed chances cost Keswick. Keswick lost possession when a long corner was played backwards which was intercepted by Bury’s Striker who made it 3-1.
Keswick then tried once again to take the game to Bury and very quickly from the restart won a short corner. Shaw’s effort on goal became trapped under the Bury keeper but Chippendale managed to dig out the ball from under the keeper for Swanston to slot home. 3-2
Keswick should have made it 3-3 in the final 5 minutes with a flurry of chances missed; an open goal, one on one opportunities and fluffed lines. With a matter of minutes to go and some shaky defending from Bury (for the first time in the game) Keswick had two chances to take a point home with them but again the chance was squandered.
The final whistle blew and the score was 3-2 to Bury. The home team had defended well and Keswick had struggled to break down the resilient home defence. Bury made the most of their 3-4 chances in the game but Keswick should have converted more of the chances they created.