Bury 2 Bristol City 2

TO concede one late goal once is misfortune, to lose another is carelessness.

Or, at least, that's what Oscar Wilde might have written had he been reporting on Tuesday night's clash against Bristol City.

After the last-gasp equaliser by Lincoln in the FA Cup, Bury allowed City to repeat the trick when Michael Nelson made a bad defensive mistake in the 88th minute of this enthralling game, leading to a penalty which a grateful Lee

Peacock tucked away.

Afterwards manager Andy Preece could barely hide his frustration and, to be fair, who could blame him.

Bury had played some brilliant football, performing in the first 20 minutes as well as they have ever done since Preece took over.

In the second half, after an excellent Harpal Singh goal, they sat slightly deeper, content to soak up pressure and looked on course to take a well-deserved three points.

Then another lack of concentration by the otherwise excellent defence led to heartbreak.

For Preece it was almost too much to take.

"I feel physically sick because we worked so hard and all we had to do was defend properly and we would have had three very important points," said the Bury boss. "It is just criminal what we are doing in the last minutes of games. We are defending as if our lives depend on it until it comes to the last minute and then, all of a sudden, we stop.

"We have just thrown away two points. It's nothing to do with having young players. You just head the ball away and there's no excuse for it."

After Syros copped the blame at Lincoln, it was Nelson's turn tonight. He unaccountably tried to head a through ball back to keeper Paddy Kenny only to watch in horror as City's Aaron Brown got to it first, forcing Kenny

to bring him down.

With just seconds left on the clock, Peacock made no mistake with the spot-kick.

It seemed an injustice because, just like they deserved to win at Lincoln on Saturday, Bury deserved maximum points against City.

For 20 minutes they produced some stunning passing play and peppered Mike Stowell in the Bristol goal time and time again. Seddon, three times, Jarrett and Forrest all went close.

They did everything but score, something they were punished for when the visitors hit the net with their first attack on 19 minutes.

Peacock got the goal, sliding in at the near post to convert Scott Murray's low cross after the winger had beaten Singh with a well-timed run.

Two minutes later the Shakers had a massive let off. Nelson was adjudged to have handballed inside the area and referee Mike Dean immediately pointed to

the spot.

City's top scorer Tony Thorpe grabbed the ball, but had his low spot Kick well-saved by Kenny.

It gave Preece's team a lifeline and they took it. The equaliser came five minutes before half time, when Jon Newby was bundled

over in front of goal just as he was about to convert Singh's looping cross. Newby received several minutes of treatment before picking himself up to blast home a confidence-boosting second league goal of the season from the spot.

Why Matthew Hill -- the defender who upended Newby was not sent off is a mystery; after all he had prevented a blatant goalscoring opportunity.

Still, it was a great game for the fans to watch and it got better three minutes after the break when Singh (who has signed on another month's loan from Leeds United to keep him at Gigg until Christmas) latched on to Steve

Redmond's pass and beautifully lifted the ball over a helpless Stowell.

From then on it was backs to the wall stuff. Peacock missed a good half chance and full back Micky Bell forced Paddy Kenny to tip over a 30-yard effort. But with Redmond in commanding form at the heart of the Bury defence it appeared the home side had ridden out the storm.

Then came the late mistake which cost the Shakers victory.

Preece might have been unhappy at the end, but he has no need to be down for long.

The Shakers are playing much, much better than they did a month ago and look more than well-equipped to move up the table and away from trouble.