BURY were dealt a last-minute blow when they fell to their sixth defeat of the season in the bottom-of-the-table clash with fellow strugglers Garstang on Saturday.

Following a spate of disappointing results, the home side were looking to get their first points of the season in Lancashire North at Radcliffe Road against a team who have been having similar fortunes in recent weeks.

Garstang opened the scoring with a try that kicked the Rams into gear.

Dominating in the set piece, the Bury pack were able to control passages of play and through Lee Slingsby, Alan Dobson and Graham Bigg each scrum was won and ball was fed effectively to the backs through Tom Smith and fly-half Will Smith.

The hosts replied with back row Jonny Allen, Stuart Swinburn and Ed Watkins able to canter up the pitch and with some neat interchanges, carve open the visitors defence for Dan Gleeballs to score. Tom Smith converted to give the home side the lead.

Despite the efforts of centres Chris Potts and George Kelly, the visitors regained the advantage against the run of play before Allen's quick thinking allowed him to reduce the arrears with an unconverted effort before the break.

Garstang increased their lead in the second period when they again challenged the Ram's defence, and with some intricate play were able to find a way past the tough tackling of Dom Bennett, Alex English and Cameron Bagnall.

A penalty from Tom Smith gave Bury a slender lead again, and from a similar position a few moments later, the home side – chasing a bonus point – opted to kick for the corner.

The Bury pack were able to clinically execute the lineout with a clean catch from Allen and with powerhouse Israr Asif and Mark Blain adding the muscle, Ed Watkins was able to peel from the back of the rolling maul and place the ball unchallenged to the left of Gartang's posts.

Again Garstang came back to reduce the home side's lead to a point, and an error in the dying seconds allowed Garstang to win the match 26-20.

Bury travel to Hutton on Saturday, 3pm kick off.