FULL-TIME: Bury 0 Crawley Town 2 (From Bury Times)

FULL-TIME: Bury 0 Crawley Town 2

4:58pm Saturday 2nd March 2013 in Sport By Craig Nelson

A BRACE from Crawley Town’s Jamie Procter condemned Bury to their third consecutive defeat at home and provided another dent to their dwindling survival hopes.

The visiting striker opened the scoring with a scuffed shot in the 17th minute before planting a towering header past Bury keeper Trevor Carson three minutes after the break.

It could have been worse for the Shakers, who looked nervous on the ball and never got to grips with a dry, bobbly pitch.

Carson was called into action as early as the sixth minute, palming away a Jake Taylor shot after the on-loan Reading midfielder broke the offside trap to sail into the box unmarked.

But Bury failed to learn from their mistakes at the back, Ethan Ebanks-Landell missing the ball with a wild lunge that left Procter unmarked to place a mis-hit effort past Carson.

Zac Thompson was the only Bury player to muster a shot on target in the first half, but his volley from the edge of the box was well-held by Paul Jones in the Bury goal.

Procter’s second goal nipped any hopes of a second-half comeback in the bud, rising highest to nod home Mike Jones’s cross from the right just after the break.

Bury manager Kevin Blackwell sent Andy Bishop on to try and claw back the game and while the Shakers won more possession in the final half hour they did very little with it.

Craig Fagan and Bishop both put chances over, while Craig Jones, a second-half substitute for Tom Soares, who looked to have pulled his hamstring, just failed to connect with a flick-on from Ebanks-Landell.

The defeat, and a good win for Colchester United at Stevenage, meant third-bottom Bury ended the day eight points from safety in League One.