THE punishment fitted the crime for Bury's first team aces this week writes Chris Hall

Still smarting from losing their grip at Southend, Shakers were put through their paces by Olympic wrestlers during an extra training session.

The entire squad were flung, stretched and slammed all morning by top level athletes at Manchester's YMCA Club, before moving on to their usual rigorous training session later that afternoon.

The move came as manager Andy Preece turned the screw on his wasteful side, whose 1-0 loss on the south coast was their third late collapse of the season already.

But it was a case of 'do as I say, not as I do' as Preece retreated to the safety of his office to avoid the pins headlocks, to the dissenting voices of his players.

"The gaffer's ducked out," said skipper Lee Duxbury.

"He had his training kit on and told the lads to come down but he must have got lost in Manchester somewhere."

The link-up came as an added bonus from a successful fund raising scheme last summer, when 16-year-old Stephen Mills won an auction to become an official squad member for a season.

Stephen, brother Gordon and elder sister Jo, are all keen amateur wrestlers, with Jo set to attend the World Championships in New York next week.

And Shakers wasted no time in approaching them with a view to setting up a session, as they bid to link up with a host of other sports to vary their training schedule.

"It's been really hard work but great fun. Any variety in training is really important," added Duxbury.

"The one-on-ones were really hard. Football is a team sport so to beat anyone one-on-one is hard. I will be very sore tomorrow."

Defender Matt Barrass echoed his captain's sentiments.

"I'm absolutely knackered. I picked out Fozzy (Martyn Forrest) as my opponent because he's the smallest in the team, but even he was beating me."

Meanwhile, Preece is hoping Bury have finally laid their home hoodoo to rest.

"Thankfully, we got a home win last week and that was important because we hadn't won a game at Gigg Lane for a long time," he said.

"Now we can build on that and take advantage of the four home matches this month."