Bury 2 - Millwall 2

BURY are back in no-mans land after the draw against in-form Millwall.

Hopes were high after encouraging performances against Scunthorpe and Burnley. But the Christmas cheer quickly turned to Millennium misery as Bury's parlous position was cruelly exposed once again by one of the Second Division's in-form teams.

Millwall have climbed from close to the bottom of the table to fourth on the back of a run that has seen them win 10 of their last 14 games.

That's the sort of form Bury need to find if they are to get back in the reckoning for a play-off place now.

For they are currently precariously placed in 13th spot, 11 points off that last play-off position and 11 points away from the dreaded relegation zone.

Not that the Shakers are relegation fodder. Far from it - but its going to take one hell of a run to get them back into the promotion reckoning.

The spirit is willing . . . but the bones need a bit more flesh on them if they are to sustain any sort of surge back towards the top of the table.

Andy Preece and Steve Redmond seem to have instilled that up and at 'em spirit in the dressing room. It transfers itself out onto the pitch and, as was shown against Burnley, it can bring the right results.

But consistency, Bury's season-long problem, is what is required and the Shakers just don't seem able to string enough wins together to even kick-start that charge back to the top.

With no money to spend on players and the possibility of outgoing transfers a more likely scenario, it's going to be a real test of Preece and Redmond's motivational abilities if they are to keep the squad of players they have got on the right track until the Shakers' financial position becomes a little clearer. One of the biggest disappointments, apart from the gulf in class between the two teams, on Tuesday night was the plunge back from the giddy heights of a 9,000-plus crowd to one under the 3,500 mark.

Granted, not playing on the Bank Holiday Monday afternoon didn't help. But there's no getting away from the fact that that 3,500 figure is now becoming the norm this season for games at Gigg.

Sad to say, I reckon the only way Bury are going to get more people in the stands on a regular basis is to install a few thousand cardboard cut-outs.

Let's hope though that Preecey and Co can make me eat my words and get the fans flocking in to watch the entertaining type of football they are striving to provide.

It didn't happen in the first half against Millwall. In fact, Bury's first ball anywhere near goal was a long 38th minute punt in from the touchline by Chris Billy that Millwall goalkeeper Tony Warner gathered on bended knee.

Preece wasn't too far away from getting a touch to a Nicky Daws cross from the right three minutes before the break, but it had been mainly Millwall with top scorer Neil Harris, David Livermore and Paul Ifell to the fore.

So when Paul Reid rifled in his first goal of the season right on half-time it did come as something of a surprise to the watching Shakers' faithful.

Billy's cross from the right was touched on by Preece and Reid ran in on the far post to hit a smart, low drive into the far side of the net.

It brought smiles to a whole host of disillusioned faces as the Bury supporters trooped off for their half-time winter warmers.

There were probably a few consoling words in the dressing room for 21-year-old Martyn Forrest. He had little to cheer as he was replaced by Darren Bullock at the start of the second half. "Martyn had taken a kick and he was finding it a bit hard," said Preece. The youngster has shown sufficient quality though already to suggest he can make it at this level. He will come again.

Bullock, as is his wont, didn't take long to get into the thick of the action and in the 53rd minute he had a shot blocked for a corner.

It came to nothing and two minutes later Millwall were back in it after a boob by Chris Swailes let in Harris for his 14th goal of the season. Preece had warned his men about putting keeper Paddy Kenny under unneccessary pressure with back-passes in the first half. "I told them to cut it out, so what does Swaz do? Tries a back pass, they score and we are on the back foot again," said Preece.

That put Millwall in the driving seat again apart from one delightful little cameo that saw Paul Williams win a tackle on the left about 25 yards out, beat two men and put in a cross that Adrian Littlejohn, sadly, could only head aimlessly up into the air in the box.

The rangy Ifell and Harris were to the fore as Millwall went in search of all three points and it looked like they had them when Harris got the better of Redmond on the left-hand side of the Bury box and delivered a super pass into Ifell's path. He did the rest for a goal that made the Bury defence look extremely silly.

With ten minutes remaining that seemed to be that. But it wasn't until the very last minute of stoppage time, the sixth in fact, that Redmond popped up with a rare goal - his first for Bury - to rescue a point they hardly deserved.

There were few complaints though as Redders steamed into the box to jump and head home Daws' ball in.

"We got out of jail," admitted Preece. "I was disappointed with our performance. Over the 90 minutes Millwall were the better team with their work rate and the way they went about the game.

"We were fortunate to come out of it with a point."

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