Quinn opts for do-it-yourself
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Reading 2 Bury 1
Justice deserted Bury last night. Two weeks after getting on the wrong end of an abandonment in their Coca-Cola Cup third round match at Reading, the Third Division side went back to suffer a cruel defeat at their First Division opponents, the winning goal coming from the joint player-manager, Jimmy Quinn, who scored a minute after bringing himself on and a minute from time. Bury will long be haunted by memories of how they led 2-0 in the first match before a downpour halted matters after 28 minutes.
The Reading captain and central defender, Adrian Williams, sounded a somewhat complacent note when he said before the game that he did not think his side would have conceded two goals against Bury in normal conditions.
Disruption to the Reading defence did not end there. Chris Woods, the Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper, is on loan at Elm Park, but Wednesday did not want him cup-tied. That meant his place was taken by the much less experienced Simon Sheppard.
Not that Bury needed any encouragement on their return to the ground from which they had trooped off so indignantly a fortnight ago, and in the early stages their composure on the ball and alertness to the danger posed by Reading's fast-breaking forwards ensured it was a well-matched if uneventful contest.
Gradually Reading began to assert themselves, forcing a succession of corners around the half-hour mark. Although the Bury defence coped with them well, they were having trouble getting the ball properly away, and in the 36th minute Lee Nogan nearly made them pay with a shot from the edge of the area which Gary Kelly had to drop on to quickly. Four minutes later Nogan should have done better when Chris Lucketti, the Bury central defender, inexplicably let a through-ball go past him. But Nogan's first touch let him down.
All the action of note seemed to have been contained within a five-minute spell early in the second half. Reading went ahead when Lucketti appeared to head into his own goal from Mick Gooding's free-kick. Then Tony Rigby volleyed Bury level, cleverly flicking the ball up to himself from a free- kick by Shaun Reid. But Quinn came on at the death to head the vital goal from James Lambert's cross.
Reading (3-5-2): Sheppard; McPherson, Holsgrove, Bernal; Brown, Gooding, Parkinson, Codner (Lambert, 73), Gilkes; Lovell (Quinn, 88), Nogan. Substitute not used: Jones.
Bury (4-4-2): Kelly; Cross, Lucketti, Matthewson, Bimson; Rigby (Daws, 83), Hughes, Reid, Pugh; Johnson (Carter, 70), Stant. Substitute not used: Sertori.
Referee: J Kirkby (Sheffield).
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