Bury 1 Southend 3 by Chris Hall: ANDY Preece insisted he would have gladly swapped his side's Worthington Cup heroics for another three league points as Shakers crashed back down to earth with a miserable second half collapse.

Bury seemed to have picked up where they left off at The Reebok as Michael Nelson's fourth-minute strike set them on their way to a valuable league victory.

But some embarrassing defensive lapses let the Shrimpers net three sloppy goals to leave Preece far from enthused by their tie at Premiership entertainers Fulham in next month's third round.

It all seemed to be going smoothly for Shakers when Terry Dunfield's precise corner kick was met by a fiercely struck volley from Nelson which left United keeper Darryl Flahavan clutching at shadows.

And they had plenty of chances to kill off the match, with Nelson heading another Dunfield set piece wide of the target and Jon Newby twice denied by the keeper.

But they were left rueing their wasted opportunities after 66 minutes, when the physical and mental fatigue from their cup exploits finally caught up with them and the momentum shifted violently in the visitors' favour.

First Graeme Jones exploited a complete breakdown in communication between Matt Barrass and Glyn Garner to steal in and head the ball into an empty net.

Then Tesfaye Bramble managed to shake his marker inside the box and Garner could only parry the ball as far as Neil Jenkins, who slotted home easily from 10 yards on 79 minutes.

And their dismay was completed seven minutes from full time when Bramble outleapt Garner on the penalty spot to nod Jenkins' speculative lob over the defence into the goal.

Match Facts

Garner 6, Barrass 7, Swailes 6, Nelson 7, Woodthorpe 6, Unsworth 6, Billy 7,

Forrest 6, Dunfield 6, Abbott 7, Newby 6. Subs: Stuart (for Swailes 45) 6,

Seddon (for Barrass 76) 6, George (for Billy 84) 6. Not used: Preece,

O'Shaughnessy.

Attendance: 3,301

Referee: Phil Joslin (Nottingham)