DAVID Flitcroft was happy with his side’s spirited performance against Gillingham despite the Shakers suffering their first defeat of the season.

Right-back Ryan Jackson opened the scoring for the Gills before his cross hit Bury skipper Antony Kay and deflected past the helpless Ben Williams to double the lead.

Tom Pope scored his second goal in as many games to pull one back, but the 189 travelling Shakers fans were sent home without a point.

“We always knew it was going to be a tough game,” Flitcroft said. “Gillingham are one of the fancied teams and they create a real atmosphere.

“When you come to a place like this with the individual duels you have to compete and you have to win them and when you don’t you’re susceptible to them scoring goals.

“You can’t come to Gillingham and have only seven performing, you need all 11 performing because they are a dominant force, especially at home.

“There are some players that did not deserve to be on the losing team. When you are making those saves and those blocks you deserve to be on a winning team, or certainly not a losing team.

“I was happy with 95 per cent of the performance. We had plenty of the ball. Could we have created more chances? Possibly.

"We have got quite a lot of it right today and we have got to work on the things we have not got right.”

Bury fell behind inside five minutes when Jackson eased past Nicky Clark to slot past Williams from close range.

The Gills could have doubled their lead when Jackson cut the ball back to Josh Wright six yards out, but Nathan Cameron recovered to make a goal-saving tackle.

On the stroke of half time, Gills defender Deji Oshilaja crashed a header against the bar, before Josh Wright sent a spectacular volley towards the bottom corner – only for Williams to pull off a stunning save and tip it behind.

Pope pulled one back in the 67th minute with a fine header after Soares picked out the target man with a pin-point cross.

Overall, Bury had more possession and shots but could not find the elusive equaliser, even after bringing exciting wingers Zeli Ismail and Danny Mayor off the bench at half time.

Both are still struggling for fitness, but Flitcroft believes when they are both match fit Bury will become a force to be reckoned with.

He added: “The energy has got to come from the flanks, it has got to come from the two corridors and I didn’t feel we got the relevant support to Popey. When you’ve got Danny and Zeli to bring on, you bring them on.

“I don’t think it impacted the game as much as I wanted it to but the more minutes Zeli and Danny get, the better we’ll be as a team.”

Bury (4-3-3): Williams 7; Jones 6 (Maher 70, 6), Kay 6, Cameron 8, Leigh 6; Soares 7, Danns 6, Mellis 6; Hope 5 (Mayor 45, 6), Clark 5 (Ismail 45, 6), Pope 7. Unused subs: Rachubka, Bedeau, Etuhu, Dudley.

Gillingham (4-4-2): Nelson; Jackson, Oshilaja, Pask, Konchesky; Wright, Osadebe, Byrne, Knott (Hessenthaler 79); McDonald (Quigley 86), Emmanuel-Thomas (Donnelly 79). Unused subs: Hadler, O'Hara, Oldaker, Dickenson.

Referee: Brendan Malone (Wiltshire).

Attendance: 5,324 (189 visiting).