Bury Town bid to halt their early exits from cups with FA Trophy trip to Lincoln

Bury Town will play Lincoln United in the extra preliminary round of the Buildbase FA Trophy this weekend, keen to kickstart a run in ‘non-league’s FA Cup’.

The Blues remain unbeaten in the BetVictor Isthmian League North Division after coming back from a two-goal deficit at Dereham Town last Saturday to win 3-2.

But, so far, this luck has not extended to the cup competitions with the Step 4 team bowing out of the FA Cup in the preliminary round to divisional rivals Histon and losing on penalties to Heybridge Swifts in a Velocity Trophy group game.

Manager Ben Chenery said: “It’s an odd one, we seem to have always been unlucky with the cups – we’re flying in the league and unbeaten and yet our only loss this season so far has been in the cups.

“So it’s the one that matters now, the FA Trophy is the non-league FA Cup really and we want to make it to the next round.

“Lincoln are an unknown quantity, so it will be a tough away game. I have watched them play in preparation but I don’t think Bury Town or I have ever played against them, and that brings an exciting new dimension.

“We go in confident but it’s a quiet confidence and a quiet strength. There’s a recognition of why we are getting good results and that’s what we are seeing. But we’re mindful of the fact they will feel the same.

“But if we perform to our levels, then we should get a result.”

Bury crashed out of last season’s cup at this stage via a 2-1 home loss to Horsham and are keen not to repeat this early exit.

They will travel to their Northern Premier League Division One South counterparts on Saturday (3pm) for the first ever time, with their front two in fine form but missing three first team players in Taylor Hastings, Ollie Fenn and Joe Hood and their new signing Sam Nunn – tight calf sustained in midweek U23 game – through injury.

But Cemal Ramadan has netted seven in the last four, four of which have been from the penalty spot, while Olly Hughes has two from two.

“Cemal and Olly are doing very well and are scoring goals and I’m very pleased with our options up front,” Chenery added.

“We have six forwards in the team all fighting for a spot, and we have lots of goals in us, which has taken a lot of pressure off us defensively, which is great considering our injury issues at the back.

“It’s been a great start and I’m very pleased with our goal ratio.”

They have scored 24 goals from their first 10 fixtures in all competitions, and have scored at least once in every outing.

Bury Town’s goal ratio was extended by three goals away to Dereham in the league last Saturday, as they fought back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and retain their second position in the league standings.

Dereham scored their first goal from the spot in the 15th minute before scoring a second minutes later. But Ramadan pulled a goal back in the 43rd minute before finding the equaliser a minute into the second period.

Hughes got in on the act in the 69th minute, with a long ball lobbing the Dereham keeper from out wide to put the visiting team ahead.

They were able to hold on to return home with three points.

“Dereham is a notoriously difficult place to play and we went in knowing we were quite poor there and got beaten quite comprehensively last year,” Chenery said.

“We gave away a penalty and then an early goal and things weren’t looking good, but we made some changes at half-time and were a different side in the second half.

“The character on show from the team was just great and it was a huge feat to come back from 2-0 down to win; it’s very pleasing to see their attitude and passion.

“Football is all about momentum and a comeback win like that really raises the spirit of the squad.”

* The result saw you vote Bury Town as your Team of the Weekend on Twitter.