Bury boss Alan Knill has warned his players their promotion dream will disappear unless they quickly regain focus.

The Shakers went down 2-0 at Macclesfield on Saturday and had leading scorer Ryan Lowe sent off.

Knill said: "We didn't play well, full stop, and going down to 10 men didn't help our cause.

"I don't know what happened with the red card, the referee says he's elbowed him.

"I didn't see it, only the referee saw it. Everybody else thought there was nothing but he obviously saw something and decided it was a straight red."

Ben Wright and Emile Sinclair netted for Macclesfield, who are still mourning the loss of boss Keith Alexander. Mike Jones hit the post with a free-kick from distance but that was as close as Bury got.

The match had been preceded by the laying of floral tributes from each of the six clubs that Alexander had managed.

Results elsewhere meant Bury retained third spot but Knill issued a stark warning to his players that improvement is needed if they are to enjoy success when the final standings are decided.

"There are 10 games left and it's a great chance for us to go up but we have to play better than we're playing at the moment," he continued. "It doesn't matter who you are everyone has tough spells and this is ours.

"The good thing is that we're still third but if we continue to play like that we'll not stay third. We need to regroup and get organised and get a lot more focus."

MACC: Brain 8, Brisley 8, Brown 7, Morgan 7, Hessey 8, Bell 7, Draper, 7 Rooney 8, Sinclair 8 (Lowe 87, 6), Wright 7, Daniel 5 (Lindfield 9, 7).

BURY: Brown 6, Buchanan 6, Futcher, 7 Sodje 7, Newey 6 (Racchi 73, 6), Worrall 5, Baker 5, Barry-Murphy 6, Jones 5 (Morrell 79, 6), Lowe 5, Bishop 6 (Elliott 62, 6).

Agree with the ratings? Have your say.

Tweet