BOURNEMOUTH 1, SHAKERS 2: Shakers climbed to sixth in the Third Division with a 2-1 victory at Bournemouth thanks to goals from Forrest (penalty) and Unsworth.

Full report and reaction on Monday

The Bournemouth game was the first of two difficult away games with a trip to Bristol Rovers coming up on Tuesday evening.

"The fixture list hasn't been kind to us with two long journeys in a matter of days," said boss Andy Preece.

"Both games are key to us. They are both tough places to go and we don't have the best of records at either of them.

"If we are in the same league position after the two games I will be delighted and that would set up a great home game against Hartlepool next weekend.

"There's no reason why we can't do well in both matches. We are going well and as long as people don't get carried away and we keep playing the way we have been doing we'll be okay.

"We are setting our standards higher all the time and if we continue like that we won't be far away."

The Stoke victory has boosted confidence in a team that was already on a five match unbeaten run and the manager was understandably thrilled with the win.

"We thoroughly deserved it," he added. "We had to stand up and be counted for the first 25 minutes but you'd expect that against a team two divisions higher than you.

"In the second half we could have scored three or four and it was a bonus for us to keep a clean sheet."