Ravens edged out at Gigg Lane

Manx side battle hard in narrow defeat

FC Isle of Man's indifferent form continued last night (26 September) as they were edged out 1-0 by Bury in a cagey affair at Gigg Lane.

In a contest with very few clear-cut opportunities, Bury provided the one moment of true quality in front of goal on 34 minutes courtest of Gareth Peet's 20-yard strike.

Despite a largely strong defensive display to shut out title-hopefuls Bury for much of the night, the Manx side struggled to test the hosts' goalkeeper, Jack Atkinson, at the other end.

The result sees FC Isle of Man's winless run stretch to seven games and remaining 13th in the table.

Under the floodlights at the historic football league venue, FC Isle of Man faced a big task up against a home side aiming to make an impression for their new manager, Dave McNabb, who was appointed this week.

Much of the first 30 minutes saw both sides battling to gain control at the game with little success with neither Atkinson or Ravens stopper, Ben Wilkinson, having much of note to deal with.

That changed with the first touch of quality in the 34th minute as Bury moved the play down the right flank before crossing to the edge of the FC IoM box for Gareth Peet, who turned inside his man before curling a low strike beyond Wilkinson into the bottom corner.

Despite the setback, FC Isle of Man remained resolute defensively against any further setbacks but couldn't respond at the other end to trail at half-time.

The second period began the way much of the first half had gone as a rather scrappy contest with neither side truly gaining the ascendancy.

Dean Pinnington was once again proving a bright spark for the Manx outfit going forward - he saw a 30-yard free-kick sail over the crossbar after 68 minutes, shortly after his cross from the right almost found Michael Williams charging in at the far post.

In spite of their efforts to get level, it was Bury who then nearly wrapped up the game in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time as Bury substitute Sajjad Elhassan got free on the left edge of the FC IoM box before driving in on goal, only to see his low strike well stopped by Wilkinson down to his left.

FC Isle of Man's next fixture will be at The Bowl against Wythenshawe FC this coming Saturday (30 September), kicking-off at 6pm.