Bury 0 Cambridge 1 - SHAKERS' start to the season went from bad to worse with a dismal performance ending in a well-earned defeat.

United had not won away from home for some 25 matches but, while never overwhelming their opponents, managed to boss the midfield and control large periods of the match as if on their own stamping ground.

Their breakthrough came eight minutes into the second half, sadly just as Bury had started to show signs of finding their feet, when Luke Guttridge's inch-perfect through ball was nudged suspiciously past goalkeeper Glyn Garner and tapped home by Omer Riza.

To his credit, Bury boss Andy Preece made no complaints about the decisive strike but, when pushed, revealed how Riza had even confessed to illegally using his hand to beat the onrushing keeper.

"I'm not moaning about it but it did look like a handball," he said.

"When Lee Unsworth asked him about it later. He told him he had handballed it to push it past Glyn. But I want to make it clear that I'm not making excuses."

It is just as well, really.

Bury's woefully inaccurate passing, badly-timed runs off the ball and lazy tackling in centre field deserved far greater punishment than a solitary fortuitous strike.

Only Matt Barrass and Steve Redmond shone from a defensive point of view, while on-loan Polish striker Pawel Abbott could have worked magic had he not been the only goal threat at the other end.

The opening day loss to Oxford had angered Preece because an otherwise sound performance had been destroyed by two lapses in concentration. This time he had no consolation to fall back on.

"It was totally different to Saturday," he said.

"We didn't pass the ball properly and everything that was right against Oxford was wrong. Our decision making on the ball was terrible and it's just hard to take anything positive out of the game.

"It's just not acceptable. We knew all about the way they played because we had worked on it this week. But we just couldn't handle it on the night.

"We were outbattled by a team with no presence about them. I was very disappointed about that."

In a depressingly dreary first half, played in front of 2,650 uninspired and largely passionless fans, Abbott was the only player from either side to have a significant strike on goal saved, latching on to a Jon Newby cross to force a great parry out of Shaun Marshall.

Newby himself had placed two hopeful lashes just over the bar from either side of the box but, despite a succession of set pieces from the U's, the dreary deadlock remained intact at the interval.

Bury came out with more purpose after the break but the goal came as a real sucker punch and proved too much for them to recover from.

Abbott was again the only man to test Marshall, with an elusive run and strike later followed by an instinctive short range header that so nearly earned the Gigg Laners their first point of the season in the dying moments.

Newby also looked a threat when he found the right position but will have to work on his embarrassingly unsuccessful attempts at springing the offside trap, which probably cost him many more attempts at the target.

SHAKERS FORM GUIDE

Garner 6, Unsworth 6, Stuart 6, Redmond 7, Swailes 6, Forrest 6, Barrass 8, Connell 6, Clegg 6, Abbott 8, Newby 7. Subs: Preece (for Redmond 72) 6, George (for Connell 55) 6, Hill (for Stuart 65) 6. Not used: Nelson, O'Shaughnessy. Attendance: 2,650.