Bury 1 Port Vale 1 by Chris Hall

BURY'S lack of cutting edge forced them to settle for a share of the spoils despite dominating 10-man Valiants from start to finish.

An opportunist second half strike from Jon Newby seemed to have clinched a vital three points for Bury's survival push until slack marking allowed Mark Bridge-Wilkinson to steal an undeserved equaliser late in the game.

But, after completely bossing the midfield and having a woeful Vale on the ropes from first minute to last, Andy Preece's charges only had themselves to blame for not killing the game off earlier.

In a one-sided first half, Bury set their stall out to attack from the kick-off with captain Martyn Forrest chancing his arm with a couple of long range efforts and Sam Collins' header forcing a strong save out of Mark Goodlad.

Their best chance came as Newby, again the architect of most attacking moves, whipped in a wicked ball from the right which needed only the slightest touch from Preece or George Clegg to send it crashing into the back of the net. Sadly, neither could stretch the extra couple of inches.

Vale used the interval as a chance to regroup after a miserable first half showing, refocus their efforts and play exactly the same in the second period. Their stale midfield created precious little in the way of shooting opportunities and allowed Bury to win almost every tackle in the centre of the pitch.

But again chances were wasted, Preece livid with his own miss after sending a free header over the bar from six yards out.

The home side were helped by the sending off of Steve Rowland for a second reckless challenge on 62 minutes.

Eight minutes later, Newby intercepted an horrendous back pass from Liam Burns to round Goodlad and slot home from an acute angle to become the club's joint top scorer this season, seven goals taking him level with Gareth Seddon.

But with 12 minutes left, Bridge-Wilkinson found room on the edge of the box to sneak a rare shot past an unsighted Paddy Kenny and steal a draw.

The result left Bury still in the thick of the basement dogfight but perhaps more concerning was the poor attendance of 3,700 - an ominous sign that the Save Our Shakers campaign could be losing momentum as it enters its fourth week.