SHAKERS boss Andy Preece remains unfazed despite seeing his charges slip out of the automatic promotion slots this week.

A draw at Torquay was enough to keep them in the top three last weekend only for wins by Bournemouth and Torquay to dump them down to fifth place before tomorrow's visit of Leyton Orient.

But, with their game in hand to come against Oxford midweek, Preece is not worrying about the day-to-day alterations to the Division Three table.

"You can't do anything about other teams' results. We've just got to worry about what we can do," he said.

"We're still level on points with the two teams above us and the league is still very open. There are a lot of teams battling away for a shot at promotion.

"So all we can do is keep fighting and now we've got a great opportunity to break into the top three with two home games in the next few days."

Orient, who boast multi-millionnaire boxing promoter Barry Hearn as their chairman, remain a potent threat in the promotion race, despite their lowly 16th position.

But if Bury can build on the sheer determination and fighting spirit shown in their last two outings, they should have their opponents on the ropes for most of the game.

Their last defeat at Kidderminster was followed by a stirring fightback at Cambridge, where two goals in the last ten minutes secured a 2-1 win, and a brave result at Torquay after having two men sent off.

Now Preece wants more of the same to keep them in the hunt for automatic promotion.

"They've been fantastic, really. I just couldn't ask for any more off the players," he said.

"The performance at Kidderminster was unacceptable and the players knew it. We had a long time without a game after that and did a lot of hard work before going to Cambridge, where we did great to come back from 1-0 down.

"Then the spirit showed to hold on to a draw with only nine men at Torquay was incredible. If we can combine that spirit with some decent football then we will have a great run."

Danny Swailes, who was red carded for two bookable offences at Torquay, will miss both matches next week as he had already racked up five yellow cards this season.