ONE moment's lack of concentration cost Cherries dear as they failed to win at home for the fifth time this season.

Sean O'Driscoll's side had completely dominated the first half territorially, admittedly without scoring.

But they still went in 1-0 down at the break after conceding a 43rd-minute penalty that Bury captain Martyn Forrest stuck away with aplomb.

The spot-kick was awarded after luckless Cherries midfielder Wade Elliott had been forced to handle Michael Nelson's header on the goalline.

Elliott at first appeared to have time to shuffle across to his left and head the ball to safety.

However, the ball must have swerved in the air and was obviously travelling at a far greater pace than the crowd could determine.

And Elliott eventually flung his left arm up into the air to stop the ball going into the net.

It was an obvious penalty and referee Ray Olivier had no choice but to issue Elliott a straight red card.

But it wasn't just Elliott's fault that Bury were gifted the spot-kick.

The whole Cherries team as a unit fell asleep trying to defend the corner - only Bury's second of the game.

Loan goalkeeper Neil Moss, making his comeback appearance for Cherries, had appeared to get both hands on Terry Dunfield's perfectly placed corner.

But, in a crowded six-yard box of jostling defenders and forwards, the keeper lost his hold of the ball and it slipped out to Nelson and he immediately directed his header goalwards.

Elliott's hand instinctively went up, off he went, and Forrest gleefully sent Moss the wrong way with the penalty.

It was desperately unfair on Cherries after they had played neat, controlled, confident football to completely dominate the first half.

Only a last-gasp lunging tackle by Nelson had denied Marcus Browning the opportunity to put the home side ahead in the 14th minute.

Shaun Maher's storming run past three defenders deep into Bury's penalty area on the half hour deserved more than the poor cross Danny Thomas delivered from it.

And Carl Fletcher was lined up to send in a 25-yard piledriver before Maher inadvertently snatched the ball off the midfielder's toes as he was about to shoot.

Indeed, up until Bury's penalty, Moss and the Cherries defence had had very little to do as most of the action had been down the other end of the pitch.

But the 10-men, who also began the second half well, still fell 2-0 behind in the 57th minute when Lee Unsworth gave Moss no chance of saving with a fierce close range diving header.

It was a goal that silenced the Dean Court faithful and stunned Cherries with its sheer simplicity.

Jon Newby and Chris Billy created the opening wide onthe left hand touchline, almost by the corner flag, before Billy's cross found Unsworth running into the penalty area.

O'Driscoll quickly brought on Brian Stock and Garreth O'Connor, and later introduced James Hayter, as they switched to only three at the back.

And Thomas and Alan Connell's short free-kick routine set up O'Connor, whose deflected 25-yard pile driver whizzed past Bury keeper Glyn Garner in the 70th minute.

That goal put Cherries right back in the picture and O'Connor's low free-kick twominutes later again tested Garner.

Stephen Purches then sent in a long range effort that Garner did well to keep out.

But this was a game Cherries were quite patently never destined to get anything from.

That was obvious when O'Connor's sweeping stoppage time effort was stopped, but not cleanly gathered by Garner.

On another day, Hayter might just have got to the loose ball first to poke it into the net from close range and bag Cherries a deserved equaliser.

As it was, on this day Garner got to the ball first and safely gathered it to leave Cherries still searching for their first home win of the season.