Bury Town boss Ben Chenery praised the character of his players after beating Newmarket Town 8-7 on penalties following a 1-1 draw to reach the quarter-finals of this season’s Omni Freight Services Suffolk Premier Cup, writes Nick Garnham.

Bury trailed 1-0 to Austen Diaper’s close-range 74th minute header in the second-round tie at Ram Meadow, but centre back Joe White equalised with three minutes remaining to set up a frantic finale.

The Bostik League North Division side were unable to force a winner and at 4-4 in the penalty shoot-out their Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division opponents had a chance to win it, but goalkeeper Ben Mayhew saved from Lewis Whitehead.

The two sides traded three more penalties before Jordan Finneran saw his spot kick saved by Mayhew.

Chenery said: “It was an opportunity to take a look at some fringe players and see if they could stake a claim for a place in the starting XI, and tonight has answered a few questions.

“We were sloppy and lacklustre and made hard work of it, but one thing this team has got is character, and they displayed that by becoming back from 1-0 down.

“It seems we have to go a goal behind to kick us into action, but then we take that as a personal insult and push on.

“We have struggled to find the back of the net at home, but we could have won it to be fair before the result was decided by the lottery of penalties.”

Disappointed Newmarket Town Manager Kevin Grainger said: “I think the boys played really well and conducted themselves well, and were unlucky not to get a result over the 90 minutes, although 1-1 was a fair scoreline.

“We only had 11 fit players so when they put their subs it was hard for us. We had a chance to win the penalty shoot-out but we didn’t take it.

“We have been through a rough period recently and we have lost some players from our squad of 18 that we had at the start of the season, but that has brought companionship back into the team and this will hopefully be the start of better things to come.”