First-half goals from Rustam Stepans and Mo Touray were enough to complete a comfortable victory for Bury over Sporting Khalsa at Gigg Lane.

In his first match in charge at home, Anthony Johnson made two changes from the win in midweek. Louis Isherwood replaced James Nield in defence while Luca Navarro made his first Bury start in place of Joe Piggott.

The Shakers made a strong start to the match. A long spell of possession saw the ball passed across the Bury team and worked out to the right towards Rustam Stepans. His curled effort bounced off the top of the crossbar.

The Shakers were soon on the attack again, new signing Navarro wasn’t able to take a shot on the edge of the box, but Mo Touray was, forcing visiting goalkeeper R’aven Constable into a smart save. Stepans then sent a cross from the right that found Bebeto Gomes, but his header was wide of the mark.

Having lost the reverse fixture in spite of a promising start, the hosts knew they would need to capitalise on one of their chances and the opening goal came from Stepans. Getting in behind the defence, Stepans cut inside and fired on goal. The ball took a deflection and beat Constable in the Khalsa goal.

It might have quickly been 2-0 as Stepans was played through again on a counter-attack, his shot, however, curled wide of the far post. Touray also tried his luck from a long way out with the keeper off his line. For one brief moment, it looked as though the ball was heading to the back of an empty goal, but it just drifted wide on the way back down.

Having been put on the back foot early, Sporting Khalsa began to defend deep and in numbers, blocking chances and marking out Bury forwards, limiting what chances the home side could make. The visitors had to hope for chances on counter-attacks, but Bury, however, kept the ball well.

With half-time approaching, the Shakers doubled their advantage. Stepans now out on the left wing, sent a great cross, met by the head of Touray, who from point blank range powered home Bury’s second of the match.

Bury made a quick start to the second half with Gomes crossing to Luca Navarro, who fired over the bar. Navarro would find the target soon afterwards, forcing a save from Constable as did Touray shooting on the turn.

Stepans could have found his second goal of the day, getting around Constable, but his shot was blocked by a defender. This sparked a long series of corner kicks for the home side, but despite the pressure, they just couldn’t find the third goal. One corner fell perfectly for Stepans, but he scuffed his shot and the chance was lost, while another corner, honed on the training ground, fell perfectly for the late-arriving Cam Fogerty, but his attempt was well saved by the busy Constable.

As the rain came down, the pace of the match slowed, and the Shakers worked to consolidate their lead. Despite their efforts in the second half, the third goal that would finish off the tie never materialised.

At the other end, Sporting Khalsa had never seriously threatened the Bury goal all game. A late free header was put clear over the bar, the closest the West Midlands side came to scoring all day.

Ultimately, Bury were able to record their fifth straight win built on the back of five straight clean sheets. In truth, once the two first half goals were scored, Bury had nothing to fear.