ANDY Preece was almost too shocked to speak after Bury's extra time defeat at the hands of Notts County in the LDV Vans Trophy in midweek.

He had watched his side dominate proceedings, hit the bar twice and have various shots cleared off the line.

Then, in extra time, young goalkeeper Glyn Garner - making his Bury debut - dropped a clanger and presented former Manchester City star Danny Allsop with a golden goal winner.

So at the after-match press conference it was understandable that the gaffer should be a little disbelieving.

When all the tape recorders had been switched off, Preece asked everyone: "Could you believe that? I don't know how we didn't win".

To the manager's credit, he refused to blame Garner for the mistake and rightly so.

The stopper has a very promising future and the driving rain and skiddy surface on the night did not make goalkeeping easy.

In truth, Preece is unlikely to be too concerned about the loss.

Most fans don't bother going to these matches (there was barely 1,000 at Gigg on Tuesday) and spend half their time saying "LDV what?"

Preece admitted as much by saying: "I'd rather win on Saturday and lose tonight."

Defeat means that the manager and the players can get back to the serious business - getting off the bottom of the league.

As Preece has admitted, if the Shakers are still at the bottom come Christmas, then the liklihood is they will be embroiled in a serious relegation dogfight until the end of the season.

However, if they can put a few wins together, the bottom of the league is so tight that they could quickly move towards mid-table safety.

With a young squad and another batch of promising youngsters coming through (see Gazza-like midfielder David Borley for a start) a mid-table finish would be a fantastic achievement.

Then next season, when the team is a little older and a lot wiser, the play-offs will be a realistic target.