Cambridge City leave it late to claim Isthmian League North Division draw away Bury Town

Cambridge City manager Jamie Cureton hailed the character of his side as they salvaged an away point in stoppage time for the second time in the space of five days.

Last Tuesday saw the Lilywhites claim a 4-4 draw at Concord Rangers, but only after recent signing Alex Teniola opened his club account to begin a comeback from 4-1 down with 20 minutes to go. His second of the night, in the 96th minute, sealed a magical draw.

And Cureton saw his players serve up similar scenes, again from a 96th-minute set-piece, at title-chasing Bury Town on Saturday. Jamie Dicks’ driven corner was adjudged to have gone in off Blues goalkeeper Charlie Beckwith at his near post for an unlikely-looking 1-1 draw to leave Cole Skuse’s dominant side on their knees.

The uplifting ending in west Suffolk ironically saw the now Sawston-based side drop a place in the Pitching In Isthmian League North Division table to 10th ahead of continuing their away run at Gorleston tomorrow (12 March) before going to Grays Athletic on Saturday (15 March).

Cureton said: “Today was a bit different because I felt on Tuesday we were in the game and I felt we'd get something from it.

“Today I thought Bury were good. Especially in the first half, I thought they played really well, created a lot of chances and our goalie made some really good saves.

“Then I just felt that we grew into it, got more energy into our play and put them under a bit more pressure than we did in the first half.

“I think if you work hard and put pressure on teams, then sometimes you get that bit of luck and we've had that today.

“It's a tough place to come against a good side, so to get a point at the death is pleasing and when you do it that way, it does feel like a win.”

It continued a resolute run of form for Cureton’s side that has seen them only lose one game in their last 15, despite not being involved in the shake-up at either end of the table with a 14-point gap to the play-offs.

And the City boss feels it is important for his side to finish their remaining eight games as strongly as they can to lay a marker down for next season.

He said: “My thoughts are on next year about who I want to keep and where I feel we need to strengthen to give us a real good chance to be in the top five.

“We want to be a team like Bury that is knocking on the door every year.

“For us now, the focus will be finishing the season strong.

“We’ll be trying to finish as high as possible and then trying to build on what we've done to be one of those sides that's capable of trying to get out of the league.”