Bury crashed out of the FA Vase via a penalty shootout having drawn 1-1 with Chadderton over 90 minutes. The defeat marks the Shakers third cup loss in a week leaving just the league as the first team’s sole target for the rest of the season, writes James Beedie.

There was a cagey opening to the match with neither side able to take advantage. Bury and Chadderton represent two of the in form sides in the league but for the most part cancelled each other out. The closest Bury came was a slick passing move between Bryan Ly and Rustam Stepans. The cross from the latter reached the forward Alex Cherera but his shot on goal was tame.

In the league fixture Bury had dominated but in this match it was the other way around Chadderton began to take charge and the Shakers struggled to keep out of trouble. A poor clearance left Matty Barlow with the ball at his feet and an open goal to aim at, his long distance lob ended with the ball landing on the roof of the net. The Oldham side continued to harass Bury until they made the breakthrough. Former Radcliffe midfielder Matt Crothers broke through and fired a thumping shot that crashed off the post. The rebound fell kindly back to Crothers who made no mistake on the second attempt.

Chadderton should have grabbed a second goal, top scorer Lewis-Simon Byrne beating the defence to a long ball sent in a lobbed effort that deflected off the bar and post of the goal and fell softly for winger Tyler Berry about a yard out from goal. His shot was blocked on the line by Ben Hockenhull. Byrne then beat the offside trap creating a one on one with the keeper, he shot inches wide of the far post.

Bury would have felt fortunate to go into the break only one goal down but knew there had to be an improvement. This was remedied within minutes of the restart.

A good passing move across midfield ended with Sam Coughlan slipping the ball in to the box for Stepans to run onto, Bury’s top scorer made no mistake beating Morgan Bacon to grab an equaliser.

For much of the second half there was only one side that looked like they would win the match outright. Bury pushed their advantage but couldn’t find a second goal. Cherera fired over from a Cam Fogerty pass while Cherera and Connor Pye both had probing crosses knocked away by the now busier defence.

From a corner both Stepans and Hockenhull had shots blocked on the line with a halfhearted appeal for handball on the second effort. Bobby Carroll had a shot saved by Bacon and the rebound was blazed over the bar by Iyrwah Gooden before in the matches closing moments Carroll had another shot cleared off the line and Stepans rattled the bar with a late shot.

With the two sides tied at full time the match went straight to penalties. Bury taking first made a positive start Bobby Carroll, Gaz Peet and Rustam Stepans all scoring but in reply Jordan Schofield, Jack Kenny and Robert Flynn also found the back of the net. Substitute Jack Dunn then saw his shot saved by Morgan Bacon, Byrne scored to give Chadderton the lead leaving Pat Jarrett with a must score opportunity. Making his Gigg Lane debut Jarrett put a chance too close to Bacon who saved again knocking Bury out of the Vase.

Bury bowed out of their third cup competition of the week and now are on a four match winless run. Whilst the league was always the priority and is now the sole competition left the Shakers will hope to rediscover their form soon. If the performance of the second half is any indication they will likely win again soon.