Bury Town V St Ives Town–Match Preview
Date: 14/10/25
Location: Ram Meadow
Ives return to league action as they prepare to make the midweek trip to Suffolk to face Bury Town in the Pitchingin Southern League Premier Division Central.
Manager Ricky Marheineke’s side found themselves without a fixture last weekend due to Banbury United’s progression in the FA Cup, forcing their scheduled visit to the Quattro-Tech Westwood Road to make way for their Fourth Qualifying Round Tie against St Albans City. Ives’ last competitive fixture saw Marheineke’s men overcome Kettering Town 1-0 in the FA Trophy to book their place in the First Round Proper.
Whilst Ives took a break from league action, there were still seven games taking place in the division over the weekend, with Alvechurch, Bishop’s Stortford and Stratford Town all picking up wins. The other four games ended in a draw, including the game involving Tuesday evening’s opponents, which ended 2-2 against Bromsgrove Sporting.
Marheineke spoke about his side’s preparation ahead of Tuesday night’s game following their 1-0 win over Kettering.
“It won’t be a week off. We’ll look at Saturday as to what we do because (like I said last week) sometimes when you have that Saturday off its hard”, Marheineke said.
“Kettering obviously had last week off and we had two tough away games, but we were at it I thought and that momentum of playing games takes you through.”
“You can train all you like but you can’t replicate games so we’ll have to look at doing something, making sure that the tempo of whatever we do is high and keeping those yards in the player’s legs so they’re at it on Tuesday against Bury.”
Ives come into this game in 11th place having picked up 13 points from their opening 10 games. Whilst they have managed to keep their impressive unbeaten home record in tact thus far, Ives will be hoping to improve upon their away record, which has seen Marheineke’s men pick up just one win from their first five fixtures on the road, which have included some difficult assignments.
Bury Town FC
The Blues have enjoyed an intermittent start to life as a step three side having won promotion from the Isthmian League North last season via the Play-Offs. Under the stewardship of manager Cole Skuse, Bury Town have managed to pick up 11 points from their opening 10 fixtures and find themselves 15th in the table.
The Suffolk-based outfit are without a league win since early September but have picked up two out of their three league victories at Ram Meadow, with wins against Royston Town and A.F.C Sudbury helping Blues get a little bit of early season momentum.
Last Time Out
These two sides have not yet met in a competitive fixture, which gives an added dimension to Tuesday evening’s game.
Form Guide
Bury Town FC–Last 5
D-Bromsgrove Sporting (A)-2-2
L-A.F.C Sudbury (A)-4-0 (FA Trophy)
W-Mildenhall Town (A)-2-3 on pens (Suffolk Premier Cup)
L-Spalding United (H)-1-2
L-Alvechurch (H)-0-1
St Ives Town FC-Last 5
W-Kettering Town (H)-1-0 (FA Trophy)
D-Bishop’s Stortford (H)-1-1
D-Leiston (A)-2-2
L-Halesowen (A)-1-0
W-A.F.C Sudbury (H)-2-0
