West Brom dropped valuable points in their bid to stay in the promotion race as they failed to sink battling Bury in front of their frustrated fans at The Hawthorns.

The draw - Bury's 17th in 33 games this season - left Albion boss Denis Smith still chasing his first home League win since taking over on Christmas Eve.

It was Albion who opened the scoring with a goal at the end of a disappointing first half after good chances had been squandered by both sides.

A right-wing cross from Paul Holmes was nodded back by Bob Taylor for Lee Hughes to find the target with a close range header and claim his seventh strike of the campaign.

But Bury punished slack defensive play by Albion in the 57th minute to steal a deserved share of the spoils.

Nigel Jemson fired a long angled drive into the middle to release Tony Ellis and he held off two defenders before slotting a well-placed shot past the advancing Alan Miller.

The Shakers came close to snatching all three points late in the game with Rob Matthews volleying wide when he should have scored and then moments later the same player ballooned his shot high over the woodwork from only five yards.

Teams

West Brom: Miller, Holmes, Nicholson, Sneekes (Quinn 63), Murphy, Carbon, Butler (Coldicott 78), Hamilton, Hughes, Taylor, Kilbane.

Subs Not Used: Burgess.

Booked: Hughes.

Goals: Hughes 45.

Bury: Kiely, Woodward (Matthews 17), Small, Daws, Lucketti, Butler, Rigby, Patterson, Armstrong, Jemson (Swan 87), Ellis, Matthews (Dalglish 80).

Booked: Butler.

Goals: Ellis 57.

Att: 15,840

Ref: M L Dean (Eastham).