Coca Cola League Two

STRIKER Jon Parkin's dramatic last-minute strike - his 21st goal of the season - enabled promotion-chasing Macclesfield to keep up the heat on the leaders.

In-form Parkin was on hand to turn in Matty Tipton's unselfish cross after the skipper had beaten the off-side trap.

It completed a fantastic week for both the prolific frontman and Brian Horton's side, who have now won three of their last four games.

Parkin blasted a hat-trick in Macc's superb 5-0 demolition of Notts County on Tuesday night. And he was again in the right place at the right time to grab his seventh goal in five games.

But, while Parkin took the plaudits, substitute Danny Whitaker deserved credit for his role as the home time overturned a 1-0 half-time deficit. The industrious midfielder's second-half introduction for the ineffectual Alan Navarro proved the catalyst for a Macc fightback.

Bury took the lead on 14 minute through the unlikely source of Lee Unsworth, though the otherwise impressive Danny Swailes was at fault against his former club.

The defender's poor clearance struck Andy Keogh and when the ball broke to Simon Whaley, the Shakers full-back met his cross with a well-placed header.

Tipton had Bury goalkeeper Andy Marriott scrambling back to tip his cross-cum-shot over the bar soon after, while his opposite number, Alan Fettis, produced a great one-handed save to claw away Jon Newby's curling effort.

Parkin nearly equalised in spectacular fashion on 33 minutes when his dipping 35-yard volley whistled over the crossbar.

Macclesfield came out firing for the start of the second period and were level within three minutes of the re-start thanks to Michael Welch's second goal in two games.

The visitors stopped after they felt the transfer-listed centre-back had impeded Brian Barry-Murphy, but Welch played on and crashed an unstoppable drive past Marriott from 15 yards.

Keogh, on loan from Leeds United, should have equalised immediately but he headed Newby's inviting cross wastefully wide.

Bury boss Graham Barrow appeared to have settled for a point when he brought on ex-Silkmen David Flitcroft to bolster the midfield with 17 minutes remaining.

But Macc went in search of a winner and Jon Fitzgerald produced an acrobatic goal-line clearance to deny Parkin's looping header on 75 minutes.

It was not all one-way traffic and Fettis pulled off an instinctive save to deny Bury substitute Colin Kazim-Richards close-range effort.

And the Northern Ireland international's stop proved all the more significant when John Miles set Tipton free and he squared for Parkin's winner.

• MACCLESFIELD: Fettis, Potter, Carragher, Harsley, Parkin, Tipton, Welch, MacKenzie (Miles 67), Navarro (Whitaker 45), McIntyre, Swailes. Subs not used: Wilson, Sheron, Briscoe. Booked: McIntyre, Welch.

• BURY: Marriott, Unsworth, Kennedy, Fitzgerald, Challinor, Woodthorpe, Mattis, Whaley, Barry-Murphy (Flitcroft 72), Newby (Kazim-Richards 79), Keogh (Moore 79). Subs not used: Cartledge, Collinge.

Referee: K.Friend.

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