FC Isle of Man suffered late heartbreak away at Gigg Lane on Tuesday night as Bury denied the Ravens a deserved point.

Sean Doyle scored twice for Paul Jones’s side, but a late header from DJ Pedro thwarted the Manx side in the North West Counties Premier Division clash in Greater Manchester.

The game’s first half-chance fell the way of Doyle in only the second minute as Bury goalkeeper Mitch Allen’s loose ball fell to him some 35 yards from goal, but he was unable to lob the keeper with a difficult chance.

While Bury responded by launching their own wave of attacks, it was the Ravens who took the lead in the 10th minute as Doyle guided a header from Charlie Higgins’s corner into the far corner of the net, leaving Allen clutching at thin air to make it 0-1.

Bury huffed and puffed a lot after the goal, but were unable to create any real chances as the Al Maitland and Jack McVey centre-back partnership played a high offside line well, with full-backs Callum Sherry and Sam Baines doing well to keep their respective wingers quiet.

The Ravens felt they were denied a penalty when Adam Adebiyi was tripped in the box, but referee Alexander Phillips was unmoved by the shouts from the away bench.

The league leaders were then able to win a series of corners and finally got their reward as Aaron Chalmers was left free to head past Adam Killey to level the game 1-1 in the 44th minute.

Killey then made sure it stayed level at the break as he got down smartly to push Pedro’s flicked effort round the post just before the break.

Bury came out flying in the second half and could’ve scored when Connor Pye fired wide just moments after the restart.

They went close again soon after as Pedro tried an overhead kick but fired it into the empty stand behind the goal.

After very few chances for either side, Bury took the lead in the 73rd minute as Rustam Stepans prodded home what was the Shakers’ 100th league goal this season.

But the Ravens weren’t done and put together their best move of the game to free Sherry down the right. His cross picked out Doyle who again guided a beautiful header past Allen to make it 2-2 and send the already loud travelling support wild.

The Ravens then had a chance to take the lead as the recently-introduced Joao Marques picked open the Shakers’ defence to find Tom Creer who, along with Ste Whitley and Dean Pinnington, had a three-on-one advantage.

But as they bore down on goal, Whitley cut back inside and lost the momentum, with the Ravens missing out on a chance to snatch a late winner.

From there the heartbreak that is football seemed inevitable as Bryan Ly lifted in a corner which found Pedro unmarked to power home a header to make it 3-2 to Bury in the dying seconds of the contest.

- FC Isle of Man are back in action this Saturday when they are away at Glossop North End, kicking off at 2pm.

SAM TURTON