Bury Town were defeated by National League South side Braintree Town at the Denny Bros Stadium on Saturday afternoon, as the Iron hit three second half goals, with the Blues missing a penalty that would have reduced the arrears.

The first half was fairly even and there were limited chances in front of goal as Bury started with their usual strike force of Ollie Hughes and Cemal Ramadan who were both returning from injury and facing their first 45 minutes of pre-season. Both were withdrawn at half time by Ben Chenery with Emmanual Machaya and Jarid Robson both coming on.

Braintree took the lead on the hour mark when Alfie Cerulli scored from close range off the underside of the bar. Shortly afterwards a sweet strike from just outside the box from Ade Cole gave Daniel Barden no chance doubled the away sides advantage.

Bury had the chance to pull a goal back when they were awarded a penalty. Emmanuel Machaya stepped up and hit the post with his initial shot, which rebounded to him for another effort which Michael Johnson saved. New signing Jaird Robson converted at the third attempt but after initially allowing the goal, the match officials decided that as Machaya had touched the ball twice after it came back off the post it was chalked off and play was restarted with a free kick.

Just to make matters worse, Aaron Lamont added a third goal for Braintree in the final minute to round off a 3-0 victory for the visiting Iron side. The Blues will look to bounce back from three successive defeats when they travel to Hadleigh United on Tuesday evening to take on Christian Appleford's side in a match designated as the Hadleigh Charity Cup, kick off at 7:30pm.