Bury 3 Swansea 0

ANDY Preece's resurgent Shakers warmed up for tonight's home clash against Second Division leaders Millwall with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over struggling Swansea.

Two penalties from Paul Reid and a late strike from substitute Lee Connell did the business for Bury who needed a half time wake up call to get them firing on all cyclinders.

It's now six games without defeat for the Mighty Whites who can now look forward to the season's run in with renewed confidence.

Ahead inside the first ten minutes thanks to Reid's first, awarded after Swans defender Jason Price upended on loan Crewe striker Colin Cramb in the box, it should have been plain sailing for the Gigg Lane men but they made heavy work of the rest of the half.

The Welsh side lost their leading scorer, Venezualan international Giovanni Savarese, with concussion in the first few minutes following a clash of heads with Chris Swailes.

Savarese was substituted but the bloodied Swailes bravely battled on and if the Swans fans were bemoaning their luck about that they could consider themselves fortunate not to have stand-in goalkeeper Jason Jones sent off as early as the second minute when he raced out of his goal and brought down Jon Newby.

Referee Mark Warren showed Jones a yellow card when some officials might have brandished a red. He was to make amends later!

The spirited Swans - with only one victory from their previous 21 games - couldn't believe their luck and proceeded to take the game to the Shakers however the only efforts Paddy Kenny had to attend to were long range shots and more often than not off target.

"I wasn't happy at half time and I let the lads know about it," explained Preece.

"I thought we were sloppy and didn't get into the game as I'd liked. We let them back into the match too easily after we scored instead of pushing the advantage.

"I just wanted to get to the interval 1-0 up. I gave them a rollocking and it seemed to do the trick."

That it did. The second period was a far better spectacle despite a difficult surface that was still frozen on the south side of the ground.

Skipper Nick Daws, Reid and Martyn Forrest, who had another superb game in the Bury engineroom, dominated matters from the off and wasted no time in stamping their authority on the game. Ten minutes into the half, quick thinking from Cramb got Newby away with a smartly taken free kick and Chris Billy was inches away of converting his hard, low cross.

But the tide turned in the Shakers favour just after the hour mark when the reckless Jones brought down Cramb in the penalty area and Mr Warren had no hesitation in sending off the 'keeper .

That brought 18-year-old youth team custodian Alex Davies into the fray and after he initially saved Reid's spot kick - only to have been adjudged to have left his line - he was given no chance with the midfielder's second attempt just inside the post.

"When Reidy missed the first time I thought about bringing myself on to take the next one," joked Preece. "But I don't think that would have gone down very well!

"But once we got that second goal I felt we were comfortable."

The disappointed young 'keeper did superbly well to save two Newby efforts late in the game but he had no chance with Connell's first goal in senior football which took a wicked deflection and looped over his head into the net.

The Bury boss was delighted with local youngster Connell's contribution and his display won't have done him any harm as he looks to earn a new contract at the end of the season.

"Lee did well when he came on. It would have been easy for him to ease himself into it and just sit back and play alongside Steve Redmond. "But he was up and down trying to get into the box and deserved his goal. He also set up Chris Armstrong with a good chance later on. I was delighted with the way he took his 20 minutes."

With Chris Billy suspended, it remains to be seen if Connell has done enough to earn a place in the starting eleven against Millwall tonight.

SWANS boss John Hollins admitted to being "utterly mystified" by the referee's decisions to send off Jason Jones and make Paul Reid retake his second penalty.

"In the Leeds v Manchester United game Fabian Barthez kicked somebody and stayed on the pitch and saved the penalty.

"Yet we get our goalkeeper sent off, bring on a young lad who saves a penalty and then it has to be retaken.

"It was a massive turning point in the game but while it was 1-0 I thought we had a chance," he said.