Bury Town boss Richard Wilkins branded his team’s defending naive as the Blues were punished 3-0 by Skrill South high-flyers Eastleigh, at Ram Meadow.
Ben Strevens opened the scoring with a free header and then scored a tap-in following a break from a Bury corner.
Substitute Craig McAllister made the game safe in the second half with another free header from Stuart Fleetwood’ cross.
Bury lacked tempo in the first half but did keep goalkeeper Ross Flitney busier in the second half, although Eastleigh always looked like they could step up a gear if required.
“The only thing that disappointed me was the nature of the goals that we conceded, we were a bit naive, against a team with a lot of former Football League players,” said Wilkins.
“Eastleigh are a good team and my players can learn a lot from how they played the game, they are very streetwise and I think individually they are very strong.
“They are well organised and unfortunately we conceded two free-headers and the second goal, when I thought we did well for 20 minutes to get back into the game, we lost the ball on our 18-yard box and they ran down the other end to score.
“They fully deserved to win but we had a couple of chances, their keeper made a couple of good saves and we didn’t disgrace ourselves, but they were the better team.”
Wilkins was missing a number of regulars such as David Bridges, Seb Dunbar, Russell Short and Danny Cunningham and that contributed to Bury’s downfall, according to the long-serving Blues boss, who fielded impressive young midfielder Ross Bailey.
“You want to have your best players out there and it’s really unfortunate that I seem to get two players back and then lose three,” he said.
“Hopefully in the new year I can get the squad back fit and raring to go.”
For a full match report and pictures, see Monday’s East Anglian Daily Times.
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