SHAKERS boss Andy Preece believes his Bury side suffered a similar fate to other FA Cup victims Stoke City.

Stoke got beaten by Nuneaton in the famous cup competition and Preece feels every sympathy for them.

He is still desperately disappointed by his team's defeat by Northwich Vics on Tuesday night and believes Bury should have won.

He said: "We took the game to them in the first half but it was the same in the Stoke match. They had their chances, failed to take them and paid the price.

"The match should have been over by half time. They had their two chances when Gary Fletcher got free but apart from that they never had a sniff. We had some great chances and needed to score first.

"At the end of the day you can't expect the defence to defend for 90 minutes without giving the opposition one chance and their lad stuck it away well. That was the difference."

What made Preece even more frustrated was that he reckoned Bury played better at Northwich than they did in the 1-1 draw at Gigg Lane which led to the fateful replay.

"It was a lot better performance than the home tie," he insisted.

"In the first half especially we did everything right. We did everything we didn't do in the first game. We got crosses in, we got shots on target, we created chances ... but we missed them and that's why we're out of the cup."

Preece now has the difficult task of picking up his players before Saturday's testing trip to Bristol City.

The Shakers have now gone nine games without a win and are desperate for three points to break that miserable sequence.