Cambridge Utd 1 Bury 2: ANDY Preece's Shakers roared back into an automatic promotion place with a late two goal blast that left Cambridge reeling.

The Gigg Lane men showed just the kind of battling spirit that they are going to need over the next few months if they are to maintain their bid to bounce back to Division Two at the first time of asking.

And, encouragingly, it was Colin Cramb who grabbed the all-important winner six minutes from time, his first goal since arriving back at the club after an absence of two years.

The striker has promised the Gigg Lane faithful he is greedy for goals to blast the Shakers back out of the basement division after the disappointment of relegation last year.

But this was no one-man show, far from it as every player played his part in a backs-to-the-wall game for periods.

Yet if any one player deserves special mention it was 17-year-old super sub David Nugent.

Not for the first time this season the likeable Scouser put his side back on course after they looked like surrendering all three points.

When he replaced George Clegg with 20 minutes remaining the Shakers never looked back and his leveller after 78 minutes was an example of the kind of opportunism that has him marked down for a great future in the game.

Picking up the ball on the edge of the Cambridge box he cut past a couple of defenders to make room before unleashing a right footed shot that bamboozled Stuart Marshall in the home goal and crept over the line.

From then on there was only one team going to win the game and the winner arrived just six minutes later when Cramb, who had hit the bar in the first half, beat the U's offside trap to give Marshall no chance with a low drive.

It was a far cry from a worrying first half that Cambridge deservedly led thanks to a Tom Youngs strike that had more than an element of farce about it.

The celebrations from the visitors bench and the 98 travelling fans at the final whistle told their own story and news that promotion rivals Oxford United and AFC Bournemouth both went down to shock defeats only made the victory the sweeter.

Formguide: Garner 6, Stuart 7, Swailes 7, Nelson 8, O'Shaughnessy 8, Clegg 6 (Nugent, 69), Redmond 7, Connell 7, Cramb 8, Dunfield 7, Newby 6 (Forrest, 86). Subs not used: Preece, Evans and Woodthorpe. Attendance: 2,875.

A long ball out of defence by Kitson should have been meat and drink for the Bury defence but Glyn Garner in the Shakers goal completely misjudged the situation and after racing out of his goal then hesitating, found himself in no-mans-land, giving Youngs the easiest of chances to fire into an unguarded goal.

With regulars Chris Billy and Lee Unsworth missing through suspension it looked as though their absence was going to be costly until those final 15 minutes.

In dangerman Omer Riza - a youngster on loan from West Ham - the home side had a player that caused the Bury defence plenty of problems and they knew

all about his ability after he grabbed the winning goal in the corresponding

match at Gigg Lane back in August.

When the Shakers went forward play broke down on the edge of the Cambridge

box far too often until the introduction of Nugent added a different option.

However, there was almost a sting in the tail just before the final whistle

when Riza ran at the Shakers defence before setting up a chance for

substitute Daniel Chillingworth on a plate.

Fortunately for Bury the youngster didn't read the script and fired wide

from six yards.