LEON Clarke and Bury maintained their fantastic run of form as the striker scored his ninth goal of the season to hand his side a seventh straight win.

The 30-year-old front man headed in Joe Riley’s cross at the back post in the 76th minute for the only goal of the game, extending his scoring record to four in the last three matches and Bury’s unbeaten run on the road to 17 games.

There was very little to separate the two teams, who both went into the match in fine form, with Colchester winning their last four.

But it was the Shakers who shaded it, moving above Gillingham into third place in the League One table, three points behind leaders Burton.

The two sides passed and probed in a first half that was high on quality but low on goalmouth incident.

Bury enjoyed some excellent periods of possession, spraying the ball to all four corners of the pitch, but only had a misguided header from Peter Clarke and a Hallam Hope shot curled straight at Colchester keeper Jamie Jones to show for their efforts as they neared the break.

At the other end, the Shakers defence never let the Us in behind them, but Rob Lainton was kept on his toes by a handful of shots from distance, including a screamer from Joe Edwards which he turned behind at full stretch.

George Moncur also tested the Bury keeper with a couple of shots from inside the box, one smothered by Lainton and the other punched clear.

David Flitcroft’s side could easily have gone into the break 1-0 up, though, after Chris Hussey curled a free kick against the angle of post and bar.

Bury switched to two up front for the second half after Flitcroft replaced Hallam Hope with Tom Pope but it was the home side that upped their intensity.

Lainton pulled off another flying save to palm away a stinging long-range strike from Marvin Sordell before diving at the feet of Moncur and then Sordell again to keep the scores level.

Flitcroft looked intent on securing the point when he put on Reece Brown in place of Danny Mayor in the 75th minute.

But a minute later Leon Clarke headed them in front, peeling away at the back post to direct Riley's searching centre back across goal.

With Brown on, Bury were well set to soak up the Colchester pressure in the final 10 minutes and never looked like giving up their lead to keep their amazing run going.

COLCHESTER UNITED (4-5-1): J Jones; Olufemi (Porter 87), Kent, Eastman, Briggs; Massey, Garvan, Moncur, Edwards (Gilbey 58), Harriott; Sordell.

Not used: Parish, Elokobi, Bonne, Sembie-Ferris, Ambrose.

BURY (4-2-3-1): Lainton; Riley, Cameron, P Clarke, Hussey; Soares, Pugh; Jones, Mayor (Brown 75), Hope (Pope 46); L Clarke.

Not used: Ruddy, Foulds, Sedgwick, Rose.

Referee: Simon Hooper.

Attendance: 4,032 (274 visiting).