DJ Pedro is stepping up as Bury look to take the goal-scoring burden off Rustam Stepans.

The on-loan striker opened his Shakers account in Saturday’s 2-0 win against Pilkington and was on target again in Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw with FC St Helens - both games at Gigg Lane.

Stepans, who also scored against Pilkington at the weekend, has 15 goals in all competitions for Bury this season while Rueben Jerome has nine - the last of those coming in the dramatic 3-2 FA Cup victory at Radcliffe at the end of September.

While Chris Watts - a part of Dave McNabb’s coaching set-up - was disappointed with Tuesday’s draw, he was happy to see Pedro is giving Bury another goal-scoring option.

“We have had conversations about that because out of front line, Rusty (Rustam Stepans) has been kind of carrying us a little bit,” he told the club’s website.

“So we have needed someone to step up in the last couple of weeks and DJ has come in done that.

“He might disappointed he has not had another one because he has had another chance towards the end where the keeper has made a save but he has been good for us and it is nice for him to get on the scoresheet again – hopefully another one on Saturday.”

Watts admitted it was a poor result and performance on Tuesday night and is looking for a reaction at AFC Liverpool on Saturday.

“We kind of had a target coming in to a run of three games but we have let ourselves down a bit so it put a bit more emphasis on that game on Saturday,” he said.

“We need to see a reaction from everyone, from staff, from players, from everyone to go in to that game on Saturday and turn up and give the fans something to shout about.”

On Tuesday night, Pedro put the Shakers ahead in the 34th minute but St Helens levelled early in the second half and could have even nicked a win at the end.

“Very disappointing,” added Watts. “We have had plenty of chances, at least in the first half, where we should have gone in at least a couple of goals ahead but we were still not happy at half time.

“I thought we were sloppy, we moved the ball really slowly.

“I think when we do that, we are letting sides come and just sit and gives them something to try and cling on to, which is what happened, and at the end they even almost one it which would have been unthinkable really on the balance of the game.

“But overall, we have had some chances but I think we were poor.”