BURY Town are hoping the police will relax the ticket-only policy on Sunday's big FA Vase semi-final first- leg clash with Hillingdon Borough at Ram Meadow.

By Mike Bacon

BURY Town are hoping the police will relax the ticket-only policy on Sunday's big FA Vase semi-final first- leg clash with Hillingdon Borough at Ram Meadow.

Ticket sales have been going well and applications have come in from as far away as Southampton, but with no guarantee that all cheques coming in and tickets going out will arrive back to their destinations in time, Bury chairman Russell Ward is hoping the police will review the situation.

Some fans have asked for their tickets to be reserved on the gate, but this would be too complicated as Ward explained.

“I would happily hold tickets on the gate, but it could mount up to 500 people or so and if that were the case, it would be chaos,” he said.

“I think if the game had been a 1pm kick-off, the police might not have made it all-ticket, but at 3pm and with the pubs having been open a while, I think they were a bit more concerned.

“But hopefully they will understand the situation we are in now and although we have sold more than 1,000 tickets already, there are loads of people, especially from further afield, asking about tickets, but time is running out for them to get a cheque to us and for us to get the tickets back to them in time.”

Sunday's Vase clash is building up nicely and the townsfolk of Bury are beginning to warm to the prospect of such a big game.

“The community and local businesses have been a great help,” Ward added.

“We have had people and companies working on the ground and we really appreciate it.”

Meanwhile on the pitch, manager Richard Wilkins is hoping to have a fully fit squad to choose from on Sunday and was happy his side got back to winning ways with an 8-1 hammering of lowly Clacton on Saturday.

That was no surprise, of course, but it was the manner of the victory which most pleased the Bury boss.

“We needed to put in a good performance against Clacton after a couple of below-par performances,” he said.

“We got into them from the start and no disrespect because Clacton battled all the way, but it could have been 12. There was a good spring in our step and our tempo was good.”

Tickets are priced at £7 for adults and £4 for concessions and are on sale now from the following locations:

Bury Town Football Club, Ram Meadow, Cotton Lane; The Bury Free Press, Kings Road; Roberts Barbers, St Johns Street; West Suffolk Motor Factors, Unit 7, Mercers Road, off Chapel Pond Hill; Frames Conservatories Direct, Unit 14, Moreton Hall Ind. Est; The Dove Public House, Hospital Road.

HILLINGDON drew 2-2 with Biggleswade on Saturday in the Spartan South Midlands League. They are now 17 games unbeaten.

HADLEIGH United will have a joint management pair next season. Dean Skinner, who took over as manager of the Ridgeons League Division One club at the beginning of this campaign, has appointed Steve Jay to run the team with him starting at the end of this season.

Jay, a former goalkeeper with Westerfield and Brantham, currently runs Ipswich Sunday League side Norbridge. He is also a goalkeeping coach at Ipswich Wanderers and Whitton.

Nick Wilding will continue as first team coach at Hadleigh working with Skinner and Jay.