A stunning second half goal from Sam Rathbone was enough to seal the three points for Avro as the visitors made it six league wins out of seven on their travels at the Neuven Stadium.
There were three changes to the starting eleven from last weekend’s defeat at Prestwich Heys, with Shaquille Lewys, Jake Cottrell and Ethan Sutcliffe replacing Jamie Hill, Kyle Jacobs and Kevin Spinelli respectively. A very even first half yielded few goalscoring opportunities, with Jack Morrow coming the closest to opening the scoring when his low drive from the edge of the area was well saved by home keeper Jack Atkinson.
After the break a timely intervention from Jack Worrall prevented Harry Brazel from giving his side the lead from close range, before both sides were reduced to ten men when Max Davidson and Joe Denman saw red. The deadlock was finally broken when a Cottrell free kick from the left looked to be going out for a goal kick, until Rathbone slid in at full stretch to volley the ball past Atkinson from the narrowest of angles.
There were still more than twenty minutes to play and Bury then laid siege to the Avro goal, with Michael Afuye spurning a couple of opportunities to double the lead after his pace on the counter attack had created the openings. However, for the not first time this season, the defence held firm to record a seventh clean sheet in twelve league games.
There will now be a two week break from Premier Division action, with the only game for the first team in that time being the local derby against Chadderton in the Manchester Premier Cup on Wednesday night at the Vestacare Stadium.
