Macclesfield 2 Bury 0
8:27pm Saturday 13th March 2010 in Bury FC By Marc Higginson
BURY'S indifferent run of form continued on Saturday as the Shakers turned in one of their worst performances of the season.
Goals in each half for Ben Wright and Craig Lindfield sealed victory for lowly Macclesfield on an emotional day at the Moss Rose.
It was Town's first home game since the death of their manager Keith Alexander and they certainly did their former boss proud as they outfought a lacklustre Gigg Lane outfit, whose woes were compounded when leading scorer Ryan Lowe was sent-off at the end of the first half for an off-the-ball incident.
“We didn't play well at all,”conceded Knill, whose side have not scored from open play for more than a month. “Being reduced to ten men didn't help our cause but we were already one down to a poor goal.
“We are still third in the table but we won't stay there if we continue to play like that.
“It is a difficult time at the moment, and every team has tough spells, but we need to start winning soon or teams below us in the table will soon catch us.”
Bury started brightly without creating any meaningful opportunities and they were made to pay for not making their dominance count when Macclesfield went into the lead on the half-hour mark.
Emile Sinclair got behind the Shakers defence down the left and pulled the ball across goal for striker Wright to slot home only his third goal of the season.
And Bury's miserable afternoon was summed up in the space of sixty seconds just before half-time.
First Michael Jones' well-flighted free-kick hit the inside of the post and bounced clear before, from the rebound, Lowe's shot was blocked.
Former Chester striker Lowe then got involved in an angry exchange with Sean Hessey which ended with the referee showing a straight red card to the Bury man for an alleged elbow.
That left the visitors with an uphill battle to salvage something from the game and, missing inspirational skipper Stephen Dawson because of a family bereavement, they struggled to get themselves back into the contest.
The Silkmen extended their lead in the 57th minute when the Bury defence failed to deal with Lee Bell's corner and Lindfield was on hand to fire home from six yards out.
Tom Elliott was summoned from the bench to try and inject some extra firepower, and he saw a header superbly tipped over by Jon Brain before, with two minutes remaining, nodding another chance into the crowd.
Bury have to start winning soon if they are to hang on to their automatic promotion spot and Knill has called on his men to stick together during this testing period.
“We have ten games left and we have to go for it because it's a great chance for us to go up,” he said.
“We need to regroup, get organised and have a lot more focus.
“The supporters were fantastic at the Moss Rose and we need the supporters to help us when we are not playing well.”
MACCLESFIELD: Brain 7, Brisley 7, Hessey 7, Brown 8, Morgan 8, Bell 7, Draper 7, Sinclair 8, Rooney 7, Daniel 6, (Lindfield 7, 10), Wright 7. Subs not used: Veiga, Tipton, Lowe, Roberts, Wilson, Mukendi.
BURY: Brown 6, Buchanan 6, Futcher 7, Sodje 7, Newey 6 (Racchi 6, 73), Worrall 6, Baker 5, Barry-Murphy 6, Jones 6 (Morrell 6, 79), Lowe 5 (sent-off 43), Bishop 6 (Elliott 6, 62). Subs not used: Hewson, Cresswell, Belford, Elliott.
Attendance: 2,740
Referee: Steven Copeland (Merseyside)
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