DANNY Nardiello's double proved enough to overcome Carlisle and send Bury back into the League Two play-off places.

The fit-again Shakers striker opened the scoring with a 16th-minute penalty, only for Steven Rigg to equalise six minutes later.

Nardiello, who returned for the injured Ryan Lowe, put Bury back in front in the 62nd minute but then had a second spot-kick saved on 77 minutes, setting up a nervy finish.

Although the 32-year-old's penalty miss wasn't pretty, manager David Flitcroft felt his side's rearguard action was easy on the eye.

“It could have been 6-0,” he said. “With the chances we created we should have been out of sight.

“In a strange way I'm glad it was a 2-1 type result because what I saw from my team in the last 10 minutes is something we've been working really hard on in training.

“League Two teams will throw that ball high at you, they'll throw it long, and how you manage the game, how you manage those final moments is key.

“We did some brilliant things in the last 10 minutes. In a really ugly side of the game I saw some real beauty and that impressed me.”

The JD Stadium pitch wasn't expected to be pretty but it wasn't nearly as bad as the Bury players had feared.

There were still some sticky patches, one of which took the sting out of an early Hallam Hope strike, making it a comfortable save for Carlisle keeper Mark Gillespie.

Hope sent another shot just wide but Danny Mayor then embarked on a jinking run before being tripped by Carlisle right-back Matt Young and Nardiello sidefooted the spot-kick low to Gillespie's left.

Gillespie then turned wide a 25-yard strike by Mayor but Carlisle broke from the corner to draw level.

Kyle Dempsey's initial effort was blocked but the ball came back out to Courtney Meppen-Walter, whose 25-yard strike was parried by Nick Pope and Rigg converted the rebound.

The Shakers replied with Andrew Tutte firing over from a Craig Jones cut-back before they took charge either side of the break.

Hope fired into the side-netting before his goalbound strike was headed wide by left-back Danny Grainger and, shortly after half-time, Jones' low cross was turned over by Nardiello.

But the experienced striker made no mistake after centre-half Troy Archibald-Henville misread Tutte's through-ball, allowing it to go through to Nardiello.

Bury's top scorer held his nerve to dink it over Gillespie and in off the far post for his 11th goal of the season.

He should have had a hat-trick after Anthony Sweeney was deemed to have handled Jones' cross but he went for power and fired it straight at Gillespie.

That gave Carlisle a boost and former Bury loanee David Amoo headed wide while Pope pulled off a point-blank save to deny Rigg.

Substitute Danny Rose twice went close to clinching victory for the Shakers in the closing stages, but they breathed a sigh of relief as Amoo sent a free header wide late on.

With results of their promotion-chasing rivals going Bury's way, the three points moved them up three places into seventh on goal difference.

And after falling to just one defeat in their last six games, Flitcroft's side go into tomorrow night's rescheduled game at Accrington eager to eat into a 10-point gap to the automatic promotion places.   

BURY: Pope 7, Soares 6, Cameron 7, El-Abd 7, Hussey 7, Jones 8, Etuhu 6, Tutte 7 (Sedgwick 84, 6), Mayor 8, Nardiello 8 (Rose 77, 7), Hope 7 (Adams 63, 6). Not used: Dudley, McNulty, O'Brien, Ruddy.

CARLISLE: Gillespie, Young, O'Hanlon, Archibald-Henville, Grainger (Amoo 58), Potts (Wyke 71), Griffith (Beck 82), Meppen-Walter, Dempsey, Sweeney, Rigg. Not used: Asamoah, Brough, Thirlwell, Hanford.

Goals: Bury 2 (Nardiello 16 (pen), 62) Carlisle United 1 (Rigg 22).

Yellow cards: Bury – Hussey 87. Carlisle – Meppen-Walter 47.

Referee: Carl Boyeson (East Yorkshire).

Attendance: 3,589 (806 visiting).

STAR MAN: Danny Mayor – David Flitcroft spoke about picking the players who could handle the conditions and travel over the sticky surface, and the Danny Mayor that first arrived at Gigg Lane might not have fancied this game. Too often he'd run the ball into dead ends and would sometimes go missing defensively, leaving his full-back exposed, but Saturday's display was a lesson in economy of effort. The winger always tracked back, protecting Chris Hussey, and rather than trying to dribble through treacle, Mayor made sure he picked the ball up on the firmer areas, producing short bursts which got the Shakers up the field and gave his team-mates a breather. One such run earned Bury their first penalty and another almost resulted in a late goal for substitute Danny Rose.