AGGRIEVED boss Terry Dolan was left to lament a dreaded sense of dja-vu as York City missed out on a chance to claim top spot in Division Three.

The Minstermen suffered only their second defeat of the season going down 2-1 to Bury at Gigg Lane last night.

And Dolan admitted just two defensive lapses had cost City dear - as they did when York lost by the same scoreline at Scunthorpe in their only other defeat of the campaign.

Dolan said: "Some people might have thought we deserved more than a point but we ended up getting nothing because of ten minutes of bad play in the first half.

"It was a replica of the Scunthorpe game where apart from a couple of mistakes we have outplayed the opposition to a certain degree.

"It was more than a half-decent performance but we have lost the game.

"It was the same situation at Scunthorpe but we have got to learn we cannot give teams two-goal head starts."

City were just starting to take control of the game when two goals in six minutes from Bury left City with a mountain to climb.

Stephen Brackstone's first senior goal, coming straight from a corner, just after half-time offered hope but the home side dug deep to hold on.

"We had our best spell just prior to them scoring," said Dolan.

"I was a bit critical at half-time because we were taking too many passes instead of shooting.

"But that was the only thing I could be critical about from an attacking point of view.

"But we made two bad mistakes for the goals and from looking in control we were 2-0 down.

"After getting a goal back we more than made a game of it and they were on the back foot but we just couldn't get the goal."

City striker Peter Duffield missed out on equalling a club record of scoring in seven successive matches when he failed to get his name on the scoresheet.

But the former Darlington striker could not have gone much closer with a 30-yard volley that hit the post.

City meanwhile will be sweating on the fitness of forward Jon Parkin ahead of Tuesday's Worthington Cup clash at Sheffield United.

Parkin was substituted in the first half last night suffering from a calf strain.

Updated: 10:25 Saturday, September 07, 2002