Match Report
Bury Town v St Ives Town
Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central 14-10-2025
Goalkeeper Charlie Beckwith was the Blues hero pulling off a string of fine saves topped off by a 50th minute penalty save to deny Michael Richens and somehow prevent the Ives from gaining any reward from a game that they truly dominated. The shot count gives you a small idea of the flow of this game with the Ives having a total of nineteen efforts at goal, ten of which were on target, to their hosts seven efforts with only two hitting their target. To add to the visitor’s frustrations their hosts went down to ten men in 77th minute when Ethan Mayhew was shown a straight red card for hauling back Theo Alexandrou after the Ives striker had wriggled his way through the heart of the Blues defence to go clear.
Keeper Beckwith started his heroics after only five minutes with what looked like a shaky save as he parried Jernade Meade’s stinging 25 yarder straight back into play but that started the pattern of the night as the rebound did not fall to an Ives striker.
Four minutes later the hosts created one of their very few shooting opportunities as Tommy Hughes fed in Harley Curtis through the right channel but rather than take a touch the host’s number eight took on the effort first time from the edge of the box and could only fire into the side netting. The game settled down for a while after that and the next to go close was Jamal Adams with a snap shot from fully 25 yards that screamed inches over the top.
What proved to be the evening’s decisive goal arrived on the half hour as the hosts broke at speed. Max Maughn who had been hugging the right touchline managed to get away from Aaron Smith and deliver a ball inside that looked like picking out George Quantrell but a brilliant block from the sliding Richens prevented him hitting the target. However the ball ricocheted across the box to Mikey Davies who took a touch that looked like it had pushed him to wide but his left footed effort somehow crept through Ollie Taylor at his near post and crossed the line.
Now chasing the game Ives quickly got on top, seven minutes later Meade scraped the outside of the post with a follow up effort after shots from Adams and Smith had been blocked in a crowded Blues box. The pressure continued and Beckwith was forced into another save two minutes later as Smith’s cross from the left evaded all in the middle and arrived at the feet of Ethan Creary arriving at the back post but his first time effort deflected off Joe Carroll to take most of the sting out of the shot.
With half time approaching the visitors really started to pile on the pressure. A 42nd minute Smith long throw was knocked down to the feet of Liam Cross inside the box but he was leaning back and fired over the top. Seconds later Amir Hadi pulled another diving stop out of Beckwith as he fought his way into the heart of the hosts defence before getting away a low shot from 20 yards that the keeper dived low to his right to push away.
Ex Cambridge City and St Neots centre back Taylor Parr almost gifted Ives an equaliser right on half time as his poor attempted pass across the back was cut out by Alexandrou. Seeing keeper Beckwith off his line the striker took on the effort first time but the agile stopper back peddled to palm the ball over the top. There was still time in the one added minute for Alexandrou to again test the keeper with a low drive from the edge of the box that Beckwith dived low to his left to keep out.
Having ended the first half well on top, albeit trailing, Ives came out for the second period in even more determined mood. Alexandrou fired over from a good position only ninety seconds after the restart. Then came the visitors best chance of the night to get back on terms. An excellent ball down the left by Meade put Hadi away. The powerful striker cut inside past Lewis O’Malley who in a desperate attempt to recover took down Hadi from
behind. Excellent referee Liam Botten was in the perfect position to see the contact and had no hesitation in awarding the spot kick. Up stepped skipper Richens who went for power, but Beckwith guessed right and dived to parry the ball away.
Ives heads did not go down and they continued to press forward with purpose. Adams came within inches of what would have been a spectacular equaliser in 52nd minute. Meade picked him out on the edge of the six yard box with his back to goal. The big striker took the ball on his chest and went for a bicycle kick that made contact but the ball flew just wide of the post.
Adams was again involved five minutes later as he combined with Alexandrou and Meade on the left to carve out a golden opportunity for the latter but again they were denied by Beckwith. Alexandrou’s final ball in from the left picked out Meade arriving at pace at the near post and he hit the target with his flick only for the effort to be kept out by the legs of the overworked keeper.
As Ives took something of a breather the hosts spurned a couple of good opportunities to kill off the game around the seventy minute mark. Initially Jordan Williams was robbed by Quantrell who fed in Cemal Ramadan. The Blues skipper tried to curl his effort from just outside the box into the top corner but it was inches wide. Five minutes later the excellent Hughes threaded a pass through the Ives back line to feed in Quantrell but like his skipper before him the Blues number ten failed to hit the target from the edge of the box.
Play soon swung back up the other end and with thirteen minutes to go the hosts were reduced to ten men as Alexandrou skilfully managed to wriggle his way right through the centre of the Blues defence only to be unceremoniously pulled back by Mayhew just as he was breaking clear. Once more referee Botten was in the perfect position to see and he decided that with no covering defenders to save him the recalcitrant Mayhew should receive a straight red card. Frustratingly Richens fired the resulting free kick from the edge of the D into the hosts four man wall.
This spurred Ives on to even greater efforts but they still could not find a way past the heroic Beckwith who dived low to his right to keep out another Alexandrou drive in 82nd minute. Manager Ricky Marheineke sent on fresh legs to try and galvanise his side for a final push and two of those substitutes combined to carve out yet another shooting opportunity three minutes from time. Gibou Njie picked out Alfie Shepherd on the left. The youngster cut inside and unleashed an effort that was destined for the bottom corner until the big right hand of the diving Beckwith kept it out.
With time running out and almost everyone forward for Ives there was always likely to be one more opportunity to kill off the game for the hosts on the break and that came in the first added minute as Quantrell got put through. He steered his effort past the exposed Taylor but Njie kept running to get around behind his keeper and scoop the ball off the line.
The final noteworthy action of the night, perhaps almost fittingly, saw Cross’s late effort from just inside the box kept out by the host’s hero Beckwith.
It is not always the best side that wins a game of football sometimes one man can make all the difference and that was certainly the case in this game. I am sure that all the many Ives faithful that travelled to this game will tell you that on a different evening their team could have won by three, or four, goals. Ives will play much worse than this and win games.
Final Score: Bury Town 1 St Ives Town 0 Half Time 1 – 0
Goals:
BURY: Davies 30
ST IVES:
Team Line Ups:
BURY: Beckwith, O’Malley, Carroll, Hughes (Straw 90+2), Parr, Mayhew, Maughn, Curtis (Conway 54), Ramadan (capt) (White 82), Quantrell, Davies, Unused subs: Kellett-Green, Flowers
ST IVES: Taylor, Creary (Miles 82), Smith (Medrano 82), Richens (capt) (Shepherd 82), Williams, Idehen, Hadi, Adams (Njie 74), Cross, Alexandrou, Meade (O’Keefe 89), Unused subs: none
Referee: Liam Botten
Cards: Red: BURY: Mayhew (77)
Yellow: BURY: Ramadan (23), Davies (68) ST IVES: Hadi (78)
IVES SUPPORTERS MAN OF THE MATCH: Jernade Meade
Attendance: 510