Darren Kelly: Oldham deserved to win derby against Bury

Lee Croft gave the visitors a 24th-minute lead but Tom Pope's 65th-minute equaliser earned a point for Bury, who are still without a league win this term.

Oldham remain unbeaten in Sky Bet League One with four draws and one win but Kelly believes that cutting edge is coming.

He said: "I think we should have won it. This week we worked on creating chances and we did that today - we created some fantastic chances.

"On another day they would have gone in the net but it showed good productivity in the final third; we just didn't put our chances away.

"Lee took his goal well and there was a similar chance a few minutes later. We did some work on those areas and luckily one came off.

"We had three or four very good chances - 100 per cent we created the better chances, which is a good sign.

"And if there's one player you want one to fall to it's Mike Jones, with the quality he has, but I can't be too critical.

"We haven't been too productive in the last few weeks but today we were and hopefully we can build on that and take it forward."

A hard-fought first half saw Oldham winger Croft break the deadlock, volleying home from a cross by left-back Joseph Mills.

Bury came out much brighter after the break, with Danny Rose and Danny Mayor having shots blocked while Tom Soares twice fired wide.

Oldham replied with Mike Jones and centre-half James Wilson off target, and moments after Wilson's miss Bury were level.

Mayor found Rose in the box and he squared for Pope to tap in off the post.

Oldham substitute Simonas Stankevicius had the best chance for a late winner but was denied by keeper Rob Lainton, making it four draws and one defeat for the Shakers.

Bury manager David Flitcroft said: "I don't think it was a game of high quality. High-quality moments win derby games and I don't think we showed enough of that to win the game.

"We fully deserved to get a point; there was a lot of gusto and hard graft, but we just needed that last bit of quality to open them up.

"The resolve the players showed second half pleased me. From being in a negative situation we turned it into a positive and it's another game where we haven't got beaten in.

"It's been as tough a start as I expected in terms of getting points but I do believe we've competed in every game and could have won every game.

"Scoring goals isn't a problem but the way we're conceding goals has been uncharacteristic and that's something we've got to stop.

"Again, their goal was a poor one today. They didn't have to work hard for it."