WORTHINGTON Cup goal hero Jamie Stuart is the big injury worry ahead of Bury's trip to AFC Bournemouth.

The left-sided defender damaged his back during Tuesday night's thrilling cup win over First Division Stoke City and is rated "very doubtful" by boss Andy Preece.

Lee Unsworth (hip) has a good chance of being fit for the trip to Dean Court while Matt Barrass is added to the squad after missing the midweek cup tie.

The Bournemouth game is 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."

Now all eyes will be on the draw for the second round of the competition but the Bury boss admits he is unhappy about the timing of the draw.

"It's a bit of a nightmare, I was very disappointed when I read when the draw was to take place," said Preece.

"At half past two on a Saturday the players will be preparing and concentrating on the game ahead and although they'll want to know the draw we can't let them take their minds off what is more important - three league points."

IAN Lawson scored a consolation goal from the penalty spot when the Shakers reserves were hammered 8-1 by Manchester City reserves in the Manchester Senior Cup on Wednesday evening.