MK Dons 1 Bury 3

Attendance: 7,652 (269 visiting)

JAMES Vaughan bagged a brilliant brace as Bury stayed second in the League One table after a 3-1 victory at MK Dons.

The Shakers were forced to defend throughout but Vaughan gave them an early lead before Ben Reeves equalised just short of the hour.

Vaughan scored again minutes later against the run of play before Zeli Ismail wrapped up the win in the 95th minute.

David Flitcroft made one change from the side that beat Chesterfield on Saturday. Neil Danns made his first start in eight games after recovering from a foot inury, with Hallam Hope dropped to the bench.

MK Dons made a dominant start to the game and Reeves pulled away into space in the third minute to shoot at goal but Williams made a fine save to deny him.

Bury took the lead five minutes later from a moment of brilliance by Vaughan. The forward picked the pocket of Paul Downing before lashing a wonderful strike past the helpless David Martin from the edge of the area.

The hosts continued to control the game but a highly organised Bury defence held their own. On the odd occasion that the Dons broke through, Williams provided a a safe pair of hands denying both Ed Upson and Reeves.

The Shakers were dealt a blow when Craig Jones was forced off injured in the 18th minute and replaced by Manchester City loanee Kean Bryan – but skipper Antony Kay ensured the back four remained tighter than ever.

Williams was called into action again two minutes before half-time as he made a spectacular save to keep out Downing’s header from a couple of yards out, before flying to his left to tip Nicky Maynard’s effort around the post.

Niall Maher was withdrawn at half time and replaced with Kelvin Etuhu but the Shakers were still forced to defend deep at the start of the second half.

The post came to Bury’s rescue two minutes after the restart as substitute Samir Carruthers smashed a shot against the woodwork after finding space in the box.

The Shakers used up another life in the 57th minute when Downing crashed a header against the upright following Reeves’ pin-point cross.

Bury would not be so lucky in the 64th minute when Reeves tapped in the equaliser after initially being denied by a magnificent Williams save.

But four minutes later Vaughan restored Bury’s lead. The outstanding Jacob Mellis broke forward and played an excellent run into the path of the striker who clinically finished from close range.

MK Dons threw everything at the Shakers, but Ismail counter-attacked from a corner five minutes into added time to walk the ball into the net.