Bury 2 Macclesfield Town 1 - ANDY Preece rolled back the years to earn his side three crucial league points.

The Bury player-manager put in a great performance to help make it three wins in eight days for his resurgent side.

Preece, forced into action due to a last minute striker crisis, scored one goal and had a hand in the other as the first ever league clash betweenthese clubs went the way of the Shakers.

Yet if all had gone to plan the 35-year-old would have controlled operations from the dugout as usual.

But on Friday a phone call from Preston boss Craig Brown saw five-goal striker Pawel Abbott recalled from his loan spell while co-striker Gareth Seddon suffered a recurrence of his back trouble.

It only took 12 minutes for the manager to justify his decision to play himself in front of 17-year-old prospect Dave Nugent, as he capitalised on ahowler by Town keeper Steve Wilson.

The keeper's momentum in reaching a long pass out of defence by Danny Swailes resulted in him sliding out of the penalty area and, unable to hold onto the ball, spilled it into the path of Preece who expertly chipped

into an unguarded net from 25 yards.

Wilson's nerves seemed shot to bits after his howler and five minutes later the manager squandered an even better chance to score.

This time the keeper miscontrolled a backpass straight to Preece who, with the goal completely at his mercy and time to spare, rushed his shot and fired wide of the far post.

A second goal at that time would have had a settling effect on the Shakers who have not been at their best at Gigg in recent weeks.

Nevertheless, for the rest of the first period, they continued to take the game to their Cheshire opponents without any reward.

After the break Bury put in another of their infuriating 'off the boil' 20 minute spells that have proved so costly in recent home matches.

And in that time Macclesfield levelled when former Oldham striker Matthew Tipton found space down the right and his cross into the box was superbly fired home by Kyle Lightbourne.

Terry Dunfield had the ball in the net for Bury just before the hour mark but a linesman's flag ruled out his effort for offside.

However the Shakers were not to be denied and they grabbed the winning goal seven minutes from time.

When substitute Lenny Johnrose was hacked down on the edge of the box Preece stepped up to fire in a fierce left foot drive that Wilson could onlyparry. Unfortunately for the beleaguered Macc keeper, the ball ran straight to the feet

of the inrushing Swailes who drilled the ball home from close range.

"I am coming to the end of my career but I still feel I have something to offer at this level," said Preece who had not scored at Gigg since October 2000 in the 5-2 defeat by Bournemouth.

"We needed someone up front who could hold the ball up and I was delighted with the way it went.

"I said to the players that the result would be more important than the performance today because we really needed to start picking up more points at home."

FORMGUIDE:

Garner 8, Barrass 7, Stuart 7 (Johnrose, 60) 7, Swailes 8, Nelson 8, Unsworth 7 (Nugent 70) 7, Billy 8, PREECE 9, Dunfield 8, Woodthorpe 8, Newby 7 (Forrest, 85). Subs not used:George and O'Shaughnessy.

Attendance: 3,506.

Referee: Mr A. Bates.