DEFENSIVE mistakes once again proved costly as Bury slipped to an 11th straight defeat away to Bristol Rovers.

The Shakers got off to a fine start when Scott Burgess opened the scoring.

But Rory Gaffney soon equalised and Matty Taylor notched his 16th goal of season to give Rovers a half-time lead.

Ollie Clarke added a third after the break before substitute George Miller pulled one back to give Bury a fighting chance.

But their hopes of a comeback were dashed when Peter Hartley converted late on.

And it got worse for Bury when Neil Danns was shown a straight red card for an apparent elbow.

The defeat equals Bury’s worse ever winless run of 15 games, set by Norman Bullock’s Shakers in 1946,

But Bury still remain outside the relegation zone.

Injuries and suspensions forced Chris Brass’ hand into partnering 16-year-old Jacob Bedeau alongside midfielder Tom Soares at the heart of the defence.

Danns and Kelvin Etuhu held the centre of midfield while Burgess kept his place on the right.

The tight opening exchanges saw the two out-of-form sides trade blow for blow as Danns shot over for the Shakers and Lee Brown fired wide for Rovers.

Gaffney spurned a glorious chance to give the hosts the lead in the 18th minute when he rounded goalkeeper Ben Williams and mis-kicked the ball, allowing Etuhu just enough time to get back and clear.

The first piece of quality in the game came from the right foot of Danny Mayor. The winger swung a tantilising cross into the penalty area which was cleared to Burgess on the edge of the box and he rifled home a low volley to give the Shakers the lead.

But on 32 minutes a mix-up at the back allowed Gaffney to equalise and he prodded the ball in from six yards.

The game was flipped on its head by another defensive mistake deep into added time at the end of the first half.

Williams came to collect a low cross but let the ball slip through to Taylor who had the easy task of converting from close range.

Bury struggled to get a foothold in the game and would have fallen further behind after the break had it not been for a couple of decent saves from Williams to deny Taylor and Hartley.

It was only a matter of time before the pressure began to pay dividends and Gaffney blasted into the side netting midway through the second half, sending the Shakers a further warning shot.

Clarke eventually added breathing space when he found the bottom corner with a fierce 25-yard drive.

If staring in the face of defeat was not hard enough, right-back Jones had to withdraw due to injury to add more misery on an already make-shift defence.

Young Miller was his replacement, and the switch proved to be a masterstroke as the 18-year-old instinctively converted Mayor’s free-kick three minutes after coming on.

Straight from the restart Miller was able to split the Rovers defenders and burst through on goal but he fired wide on this occasion.

The Shakers pushed for an equaliser late on but their fate was sealed when Hartley converted a corner from close range nine minutes from time.

To add insult to injury, Danns was shown a red card late on for what referee Robert Jones thought was an elbow on Clarke.