Bury 2 Scunthorpe 3 By Chris Hall: THE good news for Bury is they appear to have broken their jinx of losing games in the last ten minutes.

Sadly, they now have another 80 to be very worried about.

Shakers offered little in the way of entertainment for their first home crowd of the season, and only came to life for the final stages of their third consecutive defeat.

Their defence was at best disorganised, at worst a shambles, their midfield squandered possession and their attack was cut adrift and shy of penetration.

And, to add to their woes, George Clegg, Chris Porter and Danny Swailes all face a spell on the sidelines after picking up a variety of injuries.

"Clegg's going to be out for a while with medial ligament damage, Porter sprained his ankle and Danny may have broken a couple of toes.

"With those three gone, things are going to get tougher," said player-manager Andy Preece.

"It was a disappointing performance. From the start, we let them look like the home side.

"It's great to see we are scoring goals but we are struggling

at the other end. It's individual mistakes rather than a collective thing."

Their collapse began after 39 minutes, when Matt Sparrow linked up with Paul Hayes to set up Steve Torpey for a far post tap in.

Bury needed a goal before the break to stay in contention and managed to pull it off moments before the whistle as Danny Swailes saw his header, from a Harpel Singh corner, get cleared off the line only for Porter to force the ball home from inside the six-yard box.

Their relief lasted only four minutes into the second half, though, as their sloppy back line was exposed once again.

Sparrow was allowed an unforgivable amount of space on the edge of the box, and when his scuffed shot broke into the penalty area, Torpey was again allowed to steal in unmarked.

Skipper Lee Duxbury then added to the humiliation factor by feeding a hopeless ball across midfield straight into the path of Peter Beagrie.

And the former Everton ace needed no further invitation, racing towards goal and unleashing a spectacular 25-yard strike that soared past a diving, but well-beaten, Glyn Garner.

Bury, sparked by enthusiastic - if not incisive - substitute Gareth Seddon, finally lifted their game, with Preece expertly hitting an overhead volley on the turn to loft the ball perfectly over the 'keeper and nestle it snugly inside the far post.

The one bright note for Bury was the outstanding performance of young goalkeeper Glyn Garner.

But, on this showing, he will need to be on top form all year to keep his side in with any chance of making the play-offs.

BURY: Garner 8, Woodthorpe 6, Swailes 6, Strong 6, Unsworth 6, Duxbury 6, Clegg 6, Singh 6, Connell 7, Preece 7, Porter 6. Subs: Seddon (for Porter, 50mins) 7, Nugent (for Clegg 43) 6. Not used: Kennedy, O'Neil, Barrass.

Attendance: 2, 761

Referee: Mr A Butler