I remember the last time we played Bury. FA Cup 1st round in 1979. I was 11. I probably didn't tell my mum and dad where I was going that day. Good job really. I don't remember much about the game except we lost. My most abiding memory was the violence. And sadly I remember being very excited by it all. It all started, I think when the Bury fans tried to "take" the Brook End (this was at Eton Park of course and there was indeed a brook which you had to cross to get to the turnstiles. Now of course, you have to cross the same brook to get into the Pop Side at Pirelli. Perhaps we should call it the Brookside).
Well "taking the brook end" was not going to happen and there were runs and scuffles and all manner of nastiness and the police were greatly outnumbered. After the match people ran onto the pitch towards the Bury fans and I joined in. I'm not sure what I thought I was going to do or what might happen by it seemed like a good idea at the time. Leaving the ground at the gates which opened onto Eton Park rec we spilled out onto the Road, through the Eton estate, up Derby Road, and up Waterloo Street towards the rail station. "Running them out of town" I think it is called. One bloke, clearly a Burton "fan", grabbed a brick off an open backed truck and hurled through a front window in Waterloo Street. Right in front of me. Even at 11 years old, I thought this was senseless. Perhaps that's why I never really got into that sort of thing.
Looking through the forums (not the CTMD Forum of course, or "Twat Forum" as I like to call it) prior to the match, there were signs that some of the older Bury fans remembered that day. Comments about "going to Burton in a tank" and "wear a bullet proof vest". Funny how you can get a reputation in 1979 and still keep it. Not that it put many Bury fans off - they were spilling onto the car park at the Beech before the match. And a friendly bunch as well from what I could see and contributed to our biggest home attendance of the season at 3,373.
Nil -Nil draws often sound like they might be drab, boring affairs but this was something different entirely. Two extremely well-drilled defences and attacking shaped midfields battled for 90 plus minutes. The play went one way and then the other and, although scoring opportunities were limited, either side could have got the goal which may well have won the match.
Shaun Harrad should perhaps have scoredon 38 mins when Walker's shot was parried by the Bury keeper but Shaun was unable to get much on the rebound and shot high. Two defenders perhaps were the stars of the show: Efe Sodje for Bury was immense and we could get nothing past him. The fact we spent most of the 1st half firing balls at Walkers head rather than to his feet meant that Sodje perhaps had an easier time of it than he should have. For Burton, Guy "The Beast" Branston once again proved his early season doubters wrong with an almost faultless performance - his one error cleared by the ever improving Ryan Austin. My man of the match though was Jacques Maghoma who was creative and industrious all day and kept Bury on their toes throughout.
At the end of the game, I ran down Derby Road towards the Rail Station, my scarf tied to my wrist, chanting "All I want is a walking stick, a hand grenade and a building brick..."
No-one got hurt.
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