BURY Town skipper Tom Bullard hailed “one of our best performances of the season” after seeing his side book a place in the Ryman League Cup final.

Bury beat Suffolk rivals Lowestoft Town 2-0, courtesy of a third-minute Danny Cunningham penalty and a Sam Reed strike in first-half injury time, at Ram Meadow on Tuesday night to set up a final against East Thurrock United, who were 1-0 winners over Lewes in the other semi-final.

The final will take place on Wednesday, March 28 at the home of Blue Square Bet South side Staines Town FC, where Alan Boon used to be chairman. The competition is known as the Alan Boon Cup in his memory.

Bullard, who was Bury’s man-of-the-match, said: “It was great to get the early penalty which set us on our way. Lowestoft made it hard for us in the second half, but I thought we dealt with it well.

“After conceding two sloppy goals on Saturday (Bury drew 2-2 with Harrow Borough) it was good to keep a clean sheet. We defended well from the front and it was one of our best performances of the season.”

Looking ahead to next month’s final Bullard said: “It will be another difficult game. East Thurrock are a decent side, but Staines is a good surface to play on and I am really looking forward to it.”

Bury Town boss Richard Wilkins said: “We knew it was going to be difficult against Lowestoft. We were very disappointed with the result against Harrow Borough, when we conceded two soft goals, so we were pleased to keep a clean sheet.

“I thought we were very good in the first half and were worth our lead at half time, but we dropped deeper in the second half, although they didn’t really hurt us. Lowestoft didn’t seem to have many bodies in the box, which is unlike them.

“They played a lot of balls into our box from deep areas which we dealt with well. We didn’t keep the ball in the second half as well as I wanted us to; we panicked a bit, but that is the nature of semi-finals.”

Wilkins, whose side face Leiston in the Suffolk Premier Cup semi-finals on March 6, said of the venue for the Ryman League Cup final: “It will be a trek for us, but hopefully we will take a couple of coaches down and have a good night out.

“Leiston will be another difficult tie for us, and we are still in the hunt for promotion from the Ryman League Premier Division via the play-offs, so we have a lot to look forward to.”

Bury now face matches home and away against Margate, who sold striker Kwesi Appiah to Championship side Crystal Palace in the January transfer window for an undisclosed fee after he had netted 35 times in 34 matches this season.

“They have found goals hard to come by since selling their striker.

“It is a difficult place to go and play good football, but hopefully we can build on this result.

“We play them at home on Tuesday – I think it has been re-arranged three times – so we will face them twice in four days and hopefully we can push on from here.”