Bury Town boss Cole Skuse hails new signing Alfie Pinyoun for displaying ‘maturity above his years’ against Gorleston

Bury Town boss Cole Skuse hailed new signing Alfie Pinyoun for displaying ‘maturity above his years’ as he made his debut in the Blues’ 2-1 victory at home to Gorleston on Saturday.

The former Norwich City Under-18s right-back or central midfielder trained with Bury in pre-season but opted to take an opportunity elsewhere at a higher-league outfit.

However, Pinyoun, who was let go by the Canaries after six years at the end of last season, made contact with Skuse, enquiring about a return to the Getaway Cars Stadium at Ram Meadow, and after his paperwork went through last Friday, the Elmswell-raised player made his first appearance for the club at the weekend as he came off the bench in the 65th minute.

“While coming into a brand-new group, a brand-new setting at the weekend, he came on and showed maturity beyond his years,” said Skuse, on Pinyoun’s first minutes in a Bury shirt.

“In possession we know what we’re getting but out of possession, his discipline and his desire to work extremely hard was incredible.

“It makes it easier when you’re playing alongside someone who has played 400 or 500 Football League games in Ed Upson. The little bits of gold dust that I’m sure he’s dripping into Alfie will have helped him massively.”

The hosts returned to the top of the Pitching In Isthmian League North Division with the weekend’s three points but had to come from behind as Alby Matthews put the 11th-placed visitors ahead on 12 minutes.

However, showing resilience as they did the week before, which saw them battle for a point with 10 men at Basildon United, Bury responded with two goals in the space of three first-half minutes.

The first came just after the half-hour mark as Ollie Canfer headed home Mikey Davis’ inch-perfect cross, before top-scorer Cemal Ramadan slid in from close range to net his seventh goal of the campaign, turning Tom Thurlborn’s inviting right-wing delivery goalbound.

“I stated it after to the boys, I was so pleased with the performance from start to finish,” said Skuse.

“I was full of confidence throughout. The goal we conceded was against the run of play but then the consistency of performance, even after conceding the goal, was extremely pleasing.

“We didn’t feel we had to come away from what was bringing us success in the first part of the game to then chase an equaliser and a winning goal.

“I was extremely proud of the group and the boys played the game very, very well.”

Bury are now unbeaten in four league matches and were meant to host Leiston in the first round of the Endeavour Automotive Suffolk Premier Cup on Tuesday night, but the fixture has been postponed for the visitors’ Emirates FA Cup third-round qualifying replay at Hornchurch.

Skuse, speaking ahead of the postponed fixture, admitted he was not planning on ‘disrupting the flow’ of his side by making wholesale changes to his starting line-up, which could be ‘detrimental’ to their rhythm.

“We know it (Leiston) will be a tough game, a different game, but a great game for us to give us a bit of an indicator, a bit of a marker as to where the level above is at, and it’s one we’re looking forward to,” said the Bury boss.

“They’re a really good group, they play some lovely football, they’ve got a really good set-up in terms of their coaches and managerial team.

“They try and play a good brand of football, they’ve got some good individual players. Obviously we played them in pre-season which can be a slightly false dawn as to where you’re at.”