SHAKERS boss Andy Preece was a relieved man after the 1-0 victory over Colchester and paid tribute to his keeper for earning three valuable points towards the Shakers' relegation fight writes Steve Canavan of the Bolton Evening News

"You always get games during the season where your backs are against the wall," he said. "You just have to work hard and grind a result out, and that's what we did.

"Colchester played a very positive formation which forced us back but we knew if we could break quickly we had a chance to grab a goal and it was a superb finish from Jon, he really deserved that.

"But Paddy was absolutely magnificent, he made four or five world class saves and proved that he is the best goalkeeper in this division - bar none!

"It was a great result for us even though we were lucky, but we should have won our previous two games so it evens out I suppose!"

But Preece has concerns about his growing injury list with two more casualties, defender George Syros (hamstring) and skipper Martyn Forrest (toe) likely to be out of action.

Lee Connell was forced to make his first appearance of the season from the substitutes bench and young central defender Nicky Thompson was called into the first team squad for the first time in his career.

"It"s a massive worry for us," he added. "For the last two months we've had eight or ten injuries to first teamers and now it looks like going back up to 14 or 15, I've never known anything like it.

"It's a good job we have a big squad, we kept our young professionals on from last year and added another couple of lads who would be YTS.

"Fortunately the players who have come into the side are taking their opportunities."