Shakers too strong for Fleetwood in Trophy win
BURY FLEETWOOD 3 1 BURY progressed to the knockout round of the Checkatrade Trophy after a 3-1 win over Fleetwood Town at Gigg Lane.
Dominic Telford, Chris Dagnall and Nicky Adams were on target as Bury secured a second-place finish in Group B with a win over the League One side – qualifying for the last 32 of the competition in the process.
Fleetwood opened the scoring through a wonderful strike from midfielder Kyle Dempsey, but Bury hit back by scoring three goals in just 16 first-half minutes.
Neil Danns turned well in the box and was brought down by defender Ryan Taylor, giving the referee no choice but to award a penalty.
Telford stepped up to take the spot-kick and he converted emphatically, sending Fleetwood goalkeeper Paul Jones the wrong way and slotting the ball into the bottom left corner.
Bury took a much-deserved lead in the 32nd minute with a devastating team move.
Defender Callum Stokes hit a wonderful ball up-field to Telford, he controlled well and pulled the ball back to Chris Dagnall and the Bury forward poked the ball into the far corner of the net to make it 2-1.
Bury doubled their advantage in the 37th minute. Telford, who once again found space in between the Town back line, played in Dagnall - his shot was well saved by Jones, but Adams was on hand to smash in the rebound from a tight angle.
Fleetwood manager Joey Barton switched formation and made two changes at half time, but the Cod Army couldn’t break down Bury. The Shakers simply proved too strong on the night and booked their place in the next round in emphatic fashion. CITY might be on course to smash the Premier League records they set in winning the title last season.
In 2017/18 the Blues became the first team in Premier League history to reach a century of points, while they also scored a competition record 106 goals in their 38 games.
After 12 games of that season Pep Guardiola’s side were sitting on a stunning return of 34 points.
After a dozen games this season they are two points off that target, but by another metric they’re actually seven points better off than last season already.
City dropped points in just five Premier League games last season. This term they’ve already played three of those fixtures and they’ve improved on those results in all of them.
Huddersfield held City at the Etihad towards the end of last season, when Guardiola’s men had already claimed the title and the Terriers were fighting for their lives. But that shock result was corrected in the second week of this season, with City winning 6-1.
Dreams of an invincible season remained in place for the Blues until January last season, when they were beaten 4-3 by Liverpool at Anfield. A second defeat of the season came in the derby at Etihad as United came from behind to win 3-2 and put the title celebrations on hold.
Both of those fixtures have already been played this season, with City drawing at Anfield a game they could have won had Riyad Mahrez converted his late penalty - and beating United at the weekend.
From these dozen fixtures they’ve already played this season City took just 25 points last term. Now they have 32. That could put Guardiola’s side on for a scarcely credible 107 points if they can match last season’s results game-for-game.
Of course it won’t be as simple as that. City’s rivals look to have improved this season. This is the first time ever three top flight clubs have been undefeated after 12 games and for now Liverpool and Chelsea are threatening to make a title race out of the campaign.
But it’s one thing starting the season well, it’s another keeping pace with this City side, who demonstrated last season they could sustain their sprint finish from first game to last. Having already come through three of the five games they failed to win last season with improved results, City will look to better draws at Crystal Palace and Burnley when those fixtures come around. Guardiola’s side have already demonstrated their ability to blow teams away at the Etihad this season and their average of three goals a game after 12 fixtures would see them better the 106 they netted last season as well. City have already been to Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham and claimed seven points from nine, without conceding, and a positive result at Stamford Bridge on December 8 could see another chance at an invincible season honing into view. There will be much talk of a title race during the November international break and this has been a thrilling season at the top so far, but don’t expect the chasing pack to live with that standard through to May. Tyrone Marshall