Along this roller coaster season, Shrewsbury Town have rarely made life simple for themselves.

Fitting then that their final shot at glory should be no different after a stomach-churning evening delivered the cruellest possible twist.

As the final 10 minutes of this high-octane encounter approached, it appeared Town would head into Sunday’s return at Bury on parity at worst.

But on a night Town have dreamed of staging for the last month, Neil Ashton and Luke Daniels suffered a nightmare moment to ensure it is advantage Bury at the midway point.

Under-pressure from charging forwards, Ashton sought refuge with what he thought was a safe back pass to his goalkeeper as he attempted to deal with an awkwardly bouncing ball.

But little did he know that Luke Daniels had wandered into no-mans-land on the edge of his box.

And Ashton had just enough time to look up and see the ball loop agonisingly over the young goalkeeper and into the empty net.

It was harsh in the extreme on both players that such a costly breakdown in communication should happen on the highest profile stage of the season, but particularly for Ashton.

For while Daniels was rarely called into action last night, the long-serving Scouse full-back was in the process of delivering another of the excellent showings which have become his trademark in recent weeks.

Indeed, it says much for his strength of character that Ashton managed to regain his composure in the minutes following a moment when he would, no doubt, have wished the ground had opened up and swallowed him.

And it is those type of qualities Shrewsbury will now need running throughout the spine of their team if they are to bounce back from this savage blow to book their place at Wembley and keep their League One dream alive.

But as Paul Simpson and his staff attempt to lift their troops over the coming hours, they have the consolation of knowing the better chances fell their way in an entertaining opening leg.

This was a typical play-off night – tight, tense, cagey and packed with endeavour as both teams battled for the upper hand.

There were occasions during a 15-minute spell in the first half when Bury briefly threatened to take a grip of the midfield battle.

But it was Town who had by far the clearer opportunities to be heading to Gigg Lane with a slender advantage, even allowing for the late aberration.

They were, however, to meet a goalkeeper in brilliant form.

Twice in a matter of seconds at the midway point of the first half, Shrewsbury’s players and a quite magnificent crowd – both numerically and vocally – thought they had broken the deadlock.

Yet Wayne Brown pulled off a brilliant save to keep out a Ben Davies strike, and was then helped along by a stroke of luck when Grant Holt’s shot from the follow-up clipped the heels of Steve Haslam and rebounded to safety off the post.

That was the closest Shrewsbury came to breaking the deadlock in an opening period where Kelvin Langmead headed just wide while Efe Sodje came dangerously close to an own goal in attempting to deal with a cross from Chris Humphrey.

While Bury’s first half attacking play always carried a threat, their chances were minimal, shots from distance from Brian Barry-Murphy and Haslam going just wide.

Town’s players appeared to inceasingly grow into the occasion after the break, with Holt having a goalbound header cleared by Barry-Murphy while, at the other end, a Phil Jevons 20-yard shot and Haslam free-kick were only fractionally wide.

But it was to be the final 13 minutes which provided the major talking points.

Referee Graham Laws was thrown into the spotlight when an attempted break from substitute Omer Riza appeared to be halted by an infringement from Ben Futcher.

Any foul would have been followed by an inevitable dismissal for the giant defender, but referee Laws elected to allow play to continue.

And the sense of injustice at that decision amongst the home crowd was only intensified by the Daniels-Ashton mix-up.

Shrewsbury were briefly rattled at the deadlock being broken in such bizarre circumstances on 80 minutes but staged a late rally, Davies twice firing just wide while Holt was again superbly denied by Brown in the fourth of five added minutes.

All of which leaves plenty resting on Sunday’s opening goal.

Should it go the way of Shrewsbury, the outcome of the overall tie goes back in the melting pot.

On the other hand, a doubling of their aggregate advantage would leave Bury with one foot on the coach to Wembley.

Simpson’s side have found their backs to the wall on many occasions this term and have recovered to leave themselves just two games and three hours of action from promotion to League One.

And, after a season of such disappointment on the road, they have shown at Rotherham and Dagenham they can produce victories when it matters most.

They are down but most certainly not out. The tie is alive and the belief must remain.

By James Garrison