A clumsy mistake from Bury's central defender Colin Woodthorpe gifted Macclesfield a vital home win. He miserably failed to clear a Danny Adams cross in the 26th minute allowing Matthew Tipton to lash home his sixth goal of the season.
The defeat ended the Shakers four game winning streak and left manager Andy Preece complaining that his side lacked commitment.
Preece revealed: "You have got to be at your maximum to get anything in this league. You've got to be up for it and you've got to be prepared to work and that's why we lost today.
"Our pace was not good enough our delivery from wide was not good enough and our movement off the ball was non existent. We were always on our back foot always on our heels. It was always just our reaction and not our anticipation." Macclesfield caretaker boss John Askey, however, was delighted with his side's performance: "It was an excellent all round performance we were particularly good in defence where both Michael Welch and Karl Munroe were excellent." Askey would only deflect questions about his longer term role saying: "All I can say is that I am enjoying it very much at the moment, that is apart from the last twenty minutes when I was desperate for the referee to blow his whistle." Macclesfield spurned a succession of chances to seal the game moments before the break Martin Curuthers scuffed a free header from four yards. Then after the break he saw his powerful right-foot shot tipped wide by the alert Glyn Garner.
Danny Whittaker was the next to be profligate in front of goal curling a free shot over the bar with only Garner to beat. Bury carved out few chances to equalise, their best on 75 minutes wasted by Gareth Seddon who volleyed straight at Steve Wilson.