THE threat was obvious, but David Flitcrtoft’s men found drawing up a plan to stop Adebayo Akinfenwa and putting it into practice were two entirely different things.

For the second time this season, Bury were knocked off top spot following a surprise away defeat after spending just a week at the summit of League Two.

The man they call “the Beast” did the damage, volleying the Dons into the lead midway through the first half and then doubling their advantage with a header before the break.

Danny Mayor put the visitors back in the match with a trademark strike, only for Matt Tubbs’ clever finish from a corner routine to render Ryan Lowe’s 73rd-minute penalty a consolation.

Flitcroft was clear about where the match was lost, tweaking the formation during the break to nullify Akinfenwa – going from three to four at the back to man-mark the striker and cut down his supply from the wings.

But by the time Flitcroft had closed the barn door, the horse had already bolted.

“You have got to stop the crosses coming in and you have got to be near Akinfenwa when the crosses do come in, which is what we have worked on all week, that’s the crazy thing,” said Flitcroft, after the imposing striker increased his goal tally to seven in his last six games.

“The thing is, if you didn’t put the detail in, if you didn’t put the work in, if I wasn’t obsessed with asking my coaches to get every little detail then I wouldn’t feel as frustrated.

“But we do the work together, it’s a shared thing - we do a lot of video work, a lot of classroom work and the players have been brilliant.

“But today there have been two key moments in the first half and for them to go in 2-0 up it seems a travesty, but it happened.”

Bury took the game to Wimbledon from the off, but while their strikers were unable to take their chances, Akinfenwa was clinical.

Lowe had two shots blocked in the fourth minute before putting a third wide.

Mayor then had a curling effort palmed away by James Shea, but Akinfenwa sounded the alarm with a header at the back post that produced a sharp save from Bury stopper Shwan Jalal.

The warning was not heeded as Nathan Cameron failed to cut out a deep cross from George Francomb and Akinfenwa steered in a volley in at the back post.

Lowe rattled the Dons’ cross bar with a free-kick, but winger Sean Rigg’s cross was on a plate for Akinfenwa to plunder his second.

Flitcroft’s half-time reshuffle was almost immediately rewarded.

Freed from his defensive duties at left wing-back, Mayor was given more licence to roam and was not picked up by the Wimbledon defence as he drifted inside and pulled the trigger from 25 yards out.

His shot curled past the despairing dive of Shea and into the top corner, an almost mirror image of the midfielder’s only other goal this season in the 2-1 win at home to Accrington.

It also sparked memories of Mayor’s late winner at Wimbledon in the previous campaign, and Flitcroft admitted he expected Bury to go on and repeat that result after pulling a goal back just four minutes after the break. Bury’s fightback, however, looked to have crumbled when Tubbs poked home a low Francomb corner through a crowd of bodies.

It looked a soft goal to concede, but goalkeeper Shwan Jalal explained that he was unsighted and could do nothing as the ball trickled past him “in slow motion” into the opposite corner .

Wimbledon defender Barry Fuller did give Bury another route back into the game after his rash foul on Nicky Adams in the box gave them a stonewall penalty that Ryan Lowe calmly put away to set up a tense final 15 minutes.

But the home side hung on to condemn the Shakers to their third defeat of the season, which saw them drop down to third in the table.

“The goals were as disappointing as I have seen,” added Flitcroft. “We had gone through it in the week, about where Akinfenwa drifts to and where he scores from, but we just switched off.

“So when you do that you have got an opportunity to lose points and lose goals, and we did.

“I told the players at half time that you don’t turn into victims, you keep your bottle, you keep your confidence, you keep doing the right thing, which we did and got a well-worked goal.

“I changed the system to get Danny on the ball a little bit more and he scored a wonderful goal.

“The impetus was with us at 2-1 – that’s the real disappointing thing.

“I really felt we would go on to win, but to let the third one in was Keystone Cops.”

WIMBLEDON: Shea; Fuller, Barrett, Bennett, Smith; Francomb (Beere 78), Moore (Frampton 90+) Bulman, Rigg; Akinfenwa, Tubbs (Azeez 78).

Subs: McDonnell, Kennedy, Nicholson, Sainte-Luce.

BURY: Jalal 6; Cameron 5, Mills 6 (Hussey 6 65), McNulty 6; Jones 7, Soares 7, Etuhu 6, Mayor 8; Adams 7 (Platt 6 74); Lowe 6, Nardiello 6 (Rose 6 58).

Subs: Lainton, Tutte, Sedgwick, Holmes.

Goals: Wimbledon 3 (Akinfenwa 26 & 37, Tubbs 53) Bury 2 (Mayor 49, Lowe 73).

Yellow cards: Wimbledon – Bulman 61, Fuller 72, Moore 87. Bury – Soares 81, Cameron 87.

Referee: Gavin Ward.

Attendance: 4,268 (386 visiting).

Star man: Danny Mayor – So often the eye-catching midfielder wins the sponsor’s man-of-the-match award without backing up his fancy footwork with real substance. But on Saturday he was unplayable. Time and again he waltzed down the left wing with the ball glued to his toe before putting in a testing cross or clever through ball. He also had a string of efforts on goal that got closer and closer to finding the net before finally producing a shot that Dons keeper James Shea was not equal to. It was a trademark strike, drifting in off the left flank before curling the ball into the top corner with his right foot. The only question is whether Mayor can add to his tally of two goals for the season to offer the Shakers a more consistent goal threat.