SHAKERS gained a vital 2-1 win at Exeter to stay in touch with the fight for the play-offs from Division Threee.

There will be a full report and reaction here on Monday monring.

Meanwhile, there was no doubting the desire of this Bury team to make a quick return to Division Two - they putt their money where their mouth is!

The Shakers headed to the south west on Friday ahead of Saturday's crucial clash against bottom-of-the-table Exeter City and all the travelling players paid for their overnight stay themselves.

It speaks volumes of the spirit and determination in the camp to force themselves into an automatic promotion place and boss Andy Preece has nothing but admiration for the gesture his players are making.

"It would be very easy for them not to do it and and travel down on the day," said Preece.

"That way they would have a ready made excuse for a poor performance, but these lads aren't like that, they desperately want to succeed.

"Things are very tight financially at the club and to keep the squad together we have had to make sacrifices.

"Also, when we see the amount of money our fans will be forking out travelling all the way down to Devon it's right that we can dig into our own pockets to make sure we prepare right for them."

It also shows that the team were well aware that only a top quality performance at St James's Park would do.

Last Saturday's 3-1 reverse at struggling Darlington highlighted just what a Jekyll and Hyde outfit Preece manages and going into the final six games of the campaign defeat would make their chances of automatic promotion even more remote.

But last weekend's reverse will have served as a timely reminder that there are no easy games in the Third Division.

The Grecians are fighting for their Nationwide League future and new manager Gary Peters is confident of saving them from the drop despite last weekend's 1-0 defeat at Rushden and Diamonds.

"Exeter were the better side at Rushden and we know just what a tough game this is going to be," added Preece.

"They have had a good run recently and haven't lost too many games since their new manager took over.

"I think they will feel very unlucky to be bottom of the league at present. We just have to make sure they are still there on Saturday evening."

The manager has been disappointed with his side's recent form and reckons the time is right for a final promotion surge.

"If we'd had a decent run in recent weeks we'd have been in a great position in third," he said.

"The top of the league has hardly changed in the last ten weeks and there is still nothing much between third place and 12th.

"It's a well worn cliche, but we really do have to take one game at a time. We have to put our hearts and souls into each one of the final six matches and take it from there."

Bury's second string were relegated from the Avon Insurance Premier League on Wednesday after a 1-0 defeat against Huddersfield Town.

But it wasn't all doom and gloom for the Shakers who saw two of their injured players take a big steps towards recovery.

Winger Simon Whaley got through the full game, while full-back Matt Barrass managed 55 minutes action.