Bury 0 Coventry City 2 (From Bury Times)

Bury 0 Coventry City 2

5:00pm Saturday 16th February 2013 in Sport By Craig Nelson

BURY missed an ideal opportunity to cut the gap on their relegation rivals after going down to a second consecutive two-goal defeat at home.

The Shakers, who fell to Sheffield United by the same scoreline on Tuesday, never looked like capitalising on defeats to Scunthorpe and Colchester after going behind in only the third minute.

Sky Blues striker Leon Clarke settled the nerves of caretaker manager Lee Carsley, who took the Coventry reins from manager Mark Robins in midweek, slotting under Trevor Carson after getting the wrong side of Ashley Eastham.

And captain Carl Baker doubled their advantage on 73 minutes, dummying to shoot on his right before drilling a left-footed strike into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

Coventry could have made life easier for themselves after Stephen Elliott hit the post with an almost identical effort to Clarke’s opener on six minutes, and James Bailey’s rebound was headed off the line by Joe Skarz.

Bury came back into it, with David Worrall creating a chance for Zac Thompson before testing Coventry keeper Joe Murphy with a volley.

Carson was called back into action on the half-hour, forced to tip a drilled shot from Gary McSheffrey over following a quick free-kick.

Andy Bishop then wasted Bury’s best chance on the stroke of half time, taking too long to get off a shot on the penalty spot, before seeing his eventual effort bobble wide of the post.

After withstanding early pressure in the second half, Bishop countered for Bury with a header that clipped the crossbar, while substitute Craig Jones had the ball in the net, but was ruled offside.

But once Barker nailed Coventry’s second the game was over as a contest, despite Nicky Ajose’s late effort that was cleared off the line by Richard Wood.

The only consolation at full-time for Bury was that their five-point gap to League One safety had not been increased.