BRISTOL CITY 1, BURY 1

NEIL Warnock warned his First Division relegation rivals to expect a fight to the finish after scrapping for a point at Bristol City on Tuesday night.

Bury were 10 minutes away from their first win on their travels this season, when a home goal denied them.

But boss Warnock refused to be down-hearted and is predicting a close battle to survive.

He said: "We are everyone's favourites to go down, but we are not going to give up without a fight.

"I think Bristol City expected to win this one, but we surprised them. We were well organised and broke well from the back.

"Unfortunately we let them off the hook, but I can't fault my players for the way they battled all game."

Bury's point was not enough to keep them out of the relegation zone as they swapped places with Port Vale, courtesy of their amazing 4-3 win at Norwich City. Fellow candidates for the drop, Oxford United, did not help matters either by collecting a point against Huddersfield Town.

Bristol, whose only away win of the season was at Gigg Lane, were booed off the field after a stale first half in which they found themselves behind to a 17th minute strike from Laurent D'Jaffo.

The Frenchman had already had the ball in the back of the net after six minutes, but was ruled to have handled Chris Lucketti's header over the line.

But there was no stopping him when on-loan Paul Hall slipped him a pass 15 yards out to fire a rocket shot beyond keeper Steve Phillips.

It was reward for the visitors' bold start which was in marked contrast to their opponents' nervous approach.

Bury keeper Dean Kiely hardly had a save worthy of the name in the first half, but he saved his side from their 17th defeat of the season with a series of superb stops which Warnock later described as 'world class'.

The Republic of Ireland international sprang low to his left to keep out top scorer Ade Akinbiyi's shot with one hand before diving full stretch to deny Jim Brennan.

But there was nothing he could do when Danish sub Soren Andersen grabbed City's lifeline. Adam Locke supplied a perfect cross from the right and the striker stooped to head home from close range.

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