THE Shakers' campaign is ending with a bang and not a whimper.
They notched their fifth win in seven games at Shrewsbury, courtesy of a fortuitous Nicky Adams effort 20 minutes from time.
Lucky though it might have been, three points were no less than Bury deserved on a miserable day in Shropshire - and could well be enough to secure Alan Knill the second manager of the month award of his career later this week.
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But the Gigg Lane boss will be hoping any forthcoming nomination will have a happier ending than it did the last time the Football League singled him out.
"I won the award at Rotherham in the October after we had been on a good run and they had sacked me by February," he said. "That's football, I suppose.
"If you are going to get it, you want it in the last two months of the season because it means you are going the right way."
Knill had not had much to smile about in a week spent largely laid-up with a back injury, a factor that hampered his side's preparations for their first-ever trip to the New Meadow.
And there was not much to get excited about in a dull first half amid awful conditions, though the Shakers did carve out the two best opportunities.
Andy Bishop twice broke through on goal only to be denied first by Garner's legs and secondly by his own errant touch.
Happily, the second half had much more to warm the cockles. The home side were lucky not have been reduced to 10 men when Graham Lee tripped Elliott Bennett on the edge of the area, only for referee Jarnail Singh to show leniency.
The Shrews took advantage by producing their best spell of the game. Dave Hibbert wasted a good chance, blasting high and wide under pressure from Efe Sodje and Luke Jones headed wide from close range.
Adam Rooney came within inches of sliding in Bishop's clever ball at the other end, but with the game destined for a stalemate, the Shakers finally got a break.
Bennett did well to release Adams on the right, he beat a defender before slashing a cross that caught the wind and dropped perfectly between the angle of post and bar.
Shrewsbury fought hard for an equaliser. Hibbert inexplicably headed wide from six yards and Lee volleyed into the side netting after springing the offside trap from a free kick.
But they ran out of ideas, leaving Knill to celebrate a victory that did not exactly go according to plan.
"I'd like to say we had done lots of work and preparation, but we hadn't because I have hardly been able to get to training this week," he said. "There is a team spirit and a commitment to the cause, and that has seen us through. The players have been fantastic. That's 16 points in the month, I doubt there is a team anywhere that has done better than that."
If you look a todays date, you might find that he hasn't actully registered as a player. Pretty much the same as the Lincoln story 'Lincoln City are proposing to switch the kick-offs of matches from Saturday at 1500 to Monday at 1000, to reduce their carbon footprint'
If you look a todays date, you might find that he hasn't actully registered as a player. Pretty much the same as the Lincoln story 'Lincoln City are proposing to switch the kick-offs of matches from Saturday at 1500 to Monday at 1000, to reduce their carbon footprint'
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