Storm saves Reading from Cup shake-out

Bury, third from bottom of the Third Division, were robbed by the weather last night. Two goals ahead after 15 minutes away at Reading the referee John Kirkby decided the torrential rain had made the pitch unsuitable and abandoned the Coca-Cola Cup third round tie after 28 minutes.

Phil Stant, who scored Bury's opener, said: "It's a disgrace. I don't think the game would have been called off if Reading were 2-0 up."

Stant opened the scoring against his former club with a fifth-minute header and Tony Rigby's clever chip 10 minutes later put Bury in command.

Stan Ternent, the Bury manager, said: "If we are going to start the game then you've got to give it a chance. When he stopped it, the conditions were no worse than they were at the beginning. You could have let it go to half-time and then called it off. I don't think he's given it a chance.

Not surprisingly, Kirkby defended his decision. "The conditions were farcical. Some of the touchlines were being completely washed away.

"There were puddles of white water where there should have been lines. The pitch was too hard and when they were forking it, the water wasn't going away."

Ian Moore, the 19-year-old son of the Tranmere coach, Ronnie, earned the Merseyside club a replay with an equaliser 15 minutes from time at St Andrew's last night.

Birmingham took the lead thanks to a second-minute own-goal by John McGreal but were reduced to 10 men following the sending-off of Gary Cooper in the 37th minute after his second bookable offence.