Bury managed to put behind their disappointing defeat at the hands of Tranmere by winning 2-1 against struggling Walsall.
Bury came into the match after having been defeated by Tranmere in the previous League match. Bury needed to win this match in order to have any chance of being in touch with the play-off positions. They achieved this exactly with a hard fought win over Walsall. Bury took the lead through an own goal from Sadler in the 20th minute. However, Walsall came back with a vengeance in the 39th minute when they equalised through Paterson.
It sparked wild celebrations amongst Walsall players and they were happy punished by the swift response by Bury. Immediately after the restart, Bury went down the other end to secure the goal, which proved to be the winner in the end. Sweeney scored the goal, which handed Bury all three points in the crucial fixture. This kept Bury only four points behind the final play-off positions. Stevenage are currently occupying this position and they will be facing intense competition over the next few weeks from the likes of Bury, who remain capable contender for this position. The likes of Huddersfield and MK dons, though, seem a bit too far for Bury to catch any time soon.
“It certainly wasn’t one of our best performances but if you look at the bigger picture, six points out of nine over Christmas, we’d have taken that. As much as it wasn’t a vintage performance, within 24 hours we’ll have forgotten about it and enjoy looking at the league table. It’s more important bearing in mind we’re not playing for two weeks as it would have been a long two weeks had we been looking at 16th or 17th,” Bury manager Richie Barker told BBC Radio after the match.