LATEST THIRD DIVISION EXPLOITS OF EXETER CITY

COOPER AT THE DOUBLE

EXETER CITY 2 BURY 0

Mark Cooper clearly showed his emerging presence as a goalscorer with the two goals that beat highly placed Bury in an interesting match at St. James' Park.

The approach work at the start of the match was impressive but it seemed that the old problem of a poor final ball coupled with wasteful finishing was again to be the order of the day for City. In the opening quarter of an hour before Cooper and a somewhat listless Richard Dryden missed good opportunities. In between Phil Parkinson had Bury's only real chance of the half, but his header went harmlessly wide.

Gary Marshall eventually provided the key to open the Lancastrian defences. Bury full-back Charlie Bishop pulled him back and Gloucestershire referee Brian Stevens pointed to the spot. Despite a mass appeal by the visitors that the foul was outside the box Cooper kept his nerve to blast a perfect penalty just inside Kelly's left hand post, his second penalty in consecutive weeks.

After the break the pattern changed and Dave Lee the Bury winger began to seriously test Jonathon Brown. One run left Brown and Scott Hiley trailing but Kevin Miller dashed off is line to save. Minutes later he crossed for Tony Cunningham to test Miller with a good header.

Somewhat against the run of play City doubled their lead with a brilliantly worked goal. Dryden for once used his pace on the touchlines and crossed for Murray Jones at the far post. Jones controlled the ball looked for the options and laid a pass in front of the supporting Cooper to drive home from around the penalty spot.

That finished Bury and City should have added more goals but it wasn't to be. The biggest cheer of the afternoon welcomed the re-appearance of Darran Rowbotham after 82 minutes as substitute almost a year after his bad knee injury.