Notts County 1 Bury 0 THERE are few certain things in life - death, taxes and Mark Stallard bagging a goal against Bury.

He was at it again last night at Meadow Lane and it proved to be the winner giving the Magpies their first home victory for seven months.

But it was a win they should still have been waiting for as profligate Bury went on the squander again.

Chance after chance went begging leaving frustrated boss Andy Preece wondering just what he has to do to get his players on the goal trail.

It was a carbon copy of the game at Millwall on Saturday with the Gigg Lane men carving out a number of decent openings only to end up chasing the game.

"I can't go into the dressing room and have a go at the players because they are still doing things right," explained Preece.

"If you look at how we did tonight you can't question the character in the side.

"We got thumped 4-0 at Millwall on Saturday but we went out last night and for the first 60 minutes we dominated the game.

"There were four gilt edged chances to open the scoring but we never took one of them."

The earliest - and probably the easiest - of those arrived after eight minutes when a collosal kick from Paddy Kenny completely cleared the County defence.

Keeper Paul Gibson misjudged the ball leaving Bhaichung Bhutia with an open goal.

But the Indian international couldn't seem to decide whether to head goalwards or shoot and the ball ran into touch.

Minutes later Jason Jarrett should have broke the net after he got on the end of a Sam Collins' header after good work from the impressive Chris Billy.

The youngster looked to be doing everything right, taking the ball superbly on his chest, but he didn't allow it to drop enough and hooked over the bar with the goal at his mercy.

Then Bhutia missed another clear cut opening, heading over after Steve Redmond had directed a Nick Daws free kick into the danger zone.

Compare that with the fact that Paddy Kenny didn't have a single shot to save in the first 45 minutes and, as you'd imagine, County were well pleased to get back in the dressing room level at the interval.

But the second half began as the first ended with the Shakers taking the game to their hosts.

However, the turning point arrived after 57 minutes when a fine ball by Collins over the top of the home defence sent Ady Littlejohn racing clear on goal.

With only Gibson to beat and yards out of his goal, the Bury striker could have gone left past him, right past him or lobbed over him into the empty net but he somehow let the ball run away from him allowing the County keeper to make a brave block.

A minute later the Shakers were behind and once again it was untidy defending that proved their undoing.

Collins tried to head back to Kenny when the best option would have been to clear into touch.

The resulting corner - County's first of the night - was only half cleared by both Martyn Forrest and Steve Redmond allowing Stallard to pick up the ball at the edge of the box, shimmy to his left and drive low past Kenny.

Kenny later revealed that he had the ball covered and that a divot caused it to bobble over his body.

"I don't think we've used any of our luck this season," added Preece. "Saturday may be a test of character for us after two defeats, but I'm not going to get down about it.

"We've lost two matches but haven't lost a lot of ground we must now make sure we get back on track in our next two home games."

BURY: Kenny 7, Billy 8, Collins 7, Redmond 7 (James, 85), C. Swailes 7, Reid 6, Daws 7, Jarrett 6, Littlejohn 6, Bhutia 6 (Preece, 67), Forrest 6. Subs not used: Barrick, Halford and D. Swailes. Attendance: 3,461.