ROB Kelly believes travel-sick Bury were the architects of their own downfall as they shipped two late goals at Crawley.

The Shakers have lost all three of their away trips in League Two so far this term and they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at Broadfield Stadium, allowing the hosts to score twice in the last nine minutes through substitute Panutche Camara and Ollie Palmer.

A 500-mile round trip to West Sussex proved thoroughly gut-wrenching and assistant manager Kelly reckons the blame lies firmly at Bury’s own doorstep.

“It’s our longest away trip of the season and we all feel desperately disappointed for the fans who have travelled down with us,” said Kelly, whose side are 19th with one win and three defeats after five games.

“It was a disappointing result. We never got started in the first 20 minutes and it was the first 45 of the season where we never got going – we never played as we can in the first half.

“But we made a couple of changes at the break. The manager tweaked a couple of things and there was a positive reaction, and we got our noses in front. Our second goal was a great counter-attack.

“We showed some character but then we’ve shot ourselves in the foot in the last 10 minutes and we have thrown the game away.

“It is difficult to take because we should have seen the game out.

“Winning football matches isn’t easy and we haven’t done a lot of that of that in the last 12 months.”

Trailing 1-0 at the break, the Shakers hit back through Chris Dagnall and substitute Danny Mayor before things turned sour late on.

The visitors made the worst possible start, conceding after just three minutes when no one picked up midfielder Jimmy Smith’s run and he headed into the net past Joe Murphy at the far post from George Francomb’s right-wing cross.

It nearly got worse for Bury when Murphy was beaten by a 35-yard strike from ex-Bolton midfielder Filipe Morais.

Referee Craig Hicks gave the goal and the teams were preparing to re-start when he was alerted to an assistant’s offside flag.

Before the break, an early Dominic Telford shot stung Glenn Morris’s palms and he then hooked his effort wide from 15 yards after Eoghan O’Connell set him up.

The Shakers had some good spells of possession but it was the hosts who offered the more potent attacking threat.

Bury rallied after the break and levelled in the 56th minute when Dagnall’s low shot sneaked through a crowd of players inside the left-hand post.

Mayor forced Morris to save at full stretch after he slalomed his way past three challenges but he was not to be denied and, 13 minutes from time, produced a powerful finish from the edge of the box at the end of a superb counter-attack.

The lead lasted just four minutes as Camara planted a free header past Murphy after Francomb’s free-kick found him in space six yards out.

Then, with three minutes to go, Palmer bulldozed his way past some tired challenges before beating Murphy from close range.

Crawley Town: Morris, Francomb, Connolly, Vincelot, Doherty, Morais (Young 70), Smith (Milsom 90), Bulman, Nathaniel-George, Poleon (Camara 76), Palmer.

Subs not used: Mersin, Randall, Grego-Cox.

Bury: Murphy 6, Stokes 6, Thompson 6, O’Connell 5 (Styles 56 5), McFadzean 5, Adams 7, Dawson 5, Danns 5, Dagnall 6 (Omotayo 64), O’Shea 5 (Mayor 45), Telford 6.

Subs not used: Hudson, Edwards, Moore, Barjonas.

Referee: Craig Hicks

Attendance: 2,036 (272 Bury).