Second-half goals from Lewis Byrne and Rustam Stepans gave Bury a 2-0 victory over ten-man Pilkington, achieving a club record eleventh straight league win.

The Shakers entered their penultimate away trip of the season with the campaign still on a knife’s edge. Top of the table and top scorers in the country but they hold only a three-point gap over the side in second place with no sign of Lower Breck slowing down in their own winning run.

Bury were boosted by the presence of Reece Kendall, who despite limping off the pitch last week against FC St Helens was fit to start again today. Elsewhere, Nicky Adams was preferred to Josh Gregory in midfield.

The visitors started the match slowly, perhaps hit by the nerves of this late season tie but soon began to create chances. A Reece Kendall long throw made its way to DJ Pedro in the Pilkington box who fired a volley that cleared the crossbar and the fence behind it. Lewis Byrne weaved his way through Pilks defenders and tried to play the ball out to Bebeto Gomes on his right but the pass was misplaced and the chance was lost.

At the other end, the hosts began to rack up good chances of their own. A Nathan Salisbury free-kick narrowly missed the top corner curling wide of Mitch Allen’s near post while Pilkington top scorer Ryan Beigan fired a shot straight at the Bury stopper. Forward Andrew Starkey also came close, blasting a good opportunity over the Bury bar. The home side, still not safe from relegation, had an important three points to win themselves and did not let Bury walk over them.

The Shakers responded well. Pedro took a first-time shot from a Byrne header that only just went over the bar. A partially cleared corner saw the ball fall to captain Bobby Carroll, his audacious overhead kick looped up and struck the crossbar. Defender Aiden Walker headed off target from another Bury corner before a Byrne cross that was headed on by Pedro fell to Rustam Stepans. He fired a shot that rattled the woodwork. Despite this late pressure the two sides went in at the break goalless.

After the restart, the Shakers began to show more drive in their search for the lead; an early chance fell to Lewis Byrne played through by Cam Fogerty but his quick fire effort was just the wrong side of the post.

Byrne didn’t have to wait much longer to make amends. From another Bury attack and again played through by Fogerty, Byrne though heavily marked managed to squeeze a shot that took a deflection and spun away from the diving reach of home keeper Jake Hilton and nestled into the back of the net.

Byrne nearly had a quick second goal latching onto a Pedro pass but his shot had too much power and sailed over the Pilkington goal.

Now the visitors had the lead the hosts needed to respond. Pilkington rang the changes with a number of substitutions but never again threatened Mitch Allen’s goal, the Shakers keeper claiming his fifth clean sheet in a row. As it turned out one player who was brought into the action from the Pilkington bench made his exit soon afterwards.

Joe Haley had only been on the pitch for a few minutes when he was called upon to stop fellow substitute Tyler James from breaking away and bursting through on the Pilkington goal. Haley’s wild challenge on James in front of the Bury bench was as late as it was high. Once the dust had settled the referee reached into his pocket and produced a red card.

The match petered out as a contest as it looked as though the one goal would again be enough to earn a crucial win away in St Helens just like last week. Deep into added time, however, Rustam Stepans made sure to dispel any late jitters bursting down the left-hand side before sending a shot between the goalkeeper’s legs and into the far bottom corner.