“IT’S me or the manager,” said veteran defender Efe Sodje after helping Bury sign off their two-year stay in League One with an action-packed victory against promotion contenders Yeovil Town.

The 40-year-old centre-back was handed the captaincy in what was assumed to be his final match for the Shakers after five years at Gigg Lane.

But Sodje left the door open for a return and sent out a broadside to Bury boss Kevin Blackwell in the process.

“So long as the manager is here then that’s the last game for me for Bury,” he said after 16 goals and 212 appearances for the club.

The eccentric defender revealed after the match how he viewed the captaincy as a poisoned chalice, following a brief conversation with Blackwell.

But, after leading the team out with his five-month-old son Luca in his arms, he went on to revel in the moment, shackling Yeovil’s dangerous strike pairing of Paddy Madden and James Hayter while providing the foundation for the Shakers' first three-goal haul of the season.

“He (Blackwell) called me yesterday and just said to me that he was going to start me and he wanted me to be captain because it was going to be my last game,” said Sodje.

“I said thank you very much for that. But you know me, captain or not captain, I’m always going to be a Bury fan.”

And he added: “Everybody has to remember that Bury is a family club. We lost that when the season started. That family union, we just lost that.

“We will just have to bring it back again. That’s what we need to do.”

That lack of unity was not evident on the pitch as Peterborough loan strikers Jonson Clarke-Harris and Nicky Ajose shared the goals in a blistering first-half performance.

Clarke-Harris got the ball rolling in the fifth minute, placing a left-footed snap-shot past the unsighted Marek Stech in the Yeovil goal before drilling a 20-yard free-kick into the bottom corner 15 minutes later.

And Bury threatened to run riot when Ajose timed his run to perfection, coming off the left wing to latch on to a Zac Thompson through-ball before curling a peach of a shot past the diving Stech just after the half hour.

That was the end of the scoring for the Shakers, who missed a host of chances to kill the game off and could easily have lost their lead after a late wobble.

Hayter finally managed to lose his marker to head home an Edward Upson corner in the 57th-minute and Kevin Dawson sparked a frenetic finale after driving a powerful shot past Cameron Belford in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

The result was academic for both sides though, with Yeovil already safely in the play-off places and Bury’s relegation to League Two confirmed. But at least the Shakers were able to jump above Hartlepool into third bottom, ensuring a little extra prize money for the cash-strapped club.

Read the full Efe Sodje interview in this week's Bury Times.

BURY: Belford 6; Ebanks-Landell 8, Sodje 9, Hughes 8, Worrall 8; Soares 6, Holden 7 (Eastham 85), Thompson 8, Ajose 8; Clarke-Harris 9, Fagan 6.

Not used: Lockwood, Pratt.

YEOVIL: Stech; Young, Ayling, Maksimenko, Blizzard; Dawson, Upson, Edwards (Williams 74), Foley; Hayter (Hinds 80), Madden (Balanta 80).

Not used: Stewart, Chainey, Emmanuel-Wilkinson.

Referee: Dean Whitestone.

Attendance: 2,440 (401 visiting).