Grimsby Town 2 Bury 1

IT was a depressingly, familiar story at Blundell Park on Saturday as the Shakers made a mockery of their league position only to come unstuck because of inadequacies in front of goal.

Not even a superb goal from on-loan out-of-favour Hartlepool striker Jon Daly could earn Chris Casper's men a point they deserved as two goals inside a six minute spell early in the first half ultimately cost them.

Shakers hopes of taking something away from the east coast hit the rocks after 14 minutes when a clever reverse pass by midfielder Curtis Woodhouse, completely caught out their defence and found Gary Jones in space on the right lashed his shot across Kasper Schmeichel from 10 yards.

Minutes later, Schmeichel was picking the ball out of the net for the second time when the defence again failed to deal with a ball from Woodhouse, this time from a corner kick, and Jones' left foot strike found the net through a forest of legs.

It might have been a different story though, had Schmeichel not superbly pushed a powerful Futcher strike over the bar after 22 minutes.

Then, two minutes later, the big defender turned up at the other end to clear a Dwayne Mattis effort off the line.

The Shakers camped in the home side's half for much of the second half and when Daly struck on the hour mark anything looked possible.

Fed by substitute Tom Kennedy on the left, he cut inside past a defender then exquisitely chipped home 'keeper Steve Mildenhall into the top corner from 25 yards.

But for all their territorial advantage for the rest of the game Casper's men could not manufacture the second that would have given the scoreline a more realistic look.

Casper said: "I don't think there's any question that we deserved something from that game."