FULL-back Chris Makin put himself in contention for tomorrow's FA Cup clash agisnt Ipswich, starting for the reserves last night after missing the last three games with a hamstring injury.

But his presence failed to inspire a Sunderland side who lost out to a Luke Chadwick strike in a warm up to the main event between the top two in the Premiership next Wednesday.

Chadwick broke the deadlock at Bury's Gigg Lane ground in the 52nd minute when he collected a through ball from former York City star Jonathan Greening to send a low drive past Michael Ingham into the keeper's left-hand corner.

Neither side sparkled in a dour first half with the return of defender Makin the major talking point.

Ingham was out quickly to deal with the threat of Chadwick when the midfielder chased a Mark Wilson pass into the area.

Then Greening struck the side netting in the 26th minute.

Earlier John Oster skipped past Danny Pugh on the right flank before forcing Paul Rachubka to parry his fierce drive.

And Clifford Burn headed over an Oster corner on 34 minutes.

Makin was withdrawn just after half-time before Chadwick brought the game to life by drawing first blood for United on 52 minutes.

Oster forced Rachubka to make a fine save at his near post and then Tom Peeters tried a clever chip from the edge of the area on 57.

Midway through the second period keeper Ingham pulled off the first of a string of fine saves to keep his side in the game. He denied Chadwick on 60 with a point blank save.

Ten minutes later he blocked Mark Wilson's vicious drive from the edge of the area.

And when the United midfielder's initial shot ran loose Greening's attempted follow-up was parried to safety by Ingham.

In the dying minutes McGill's centre was clipped just past the right-hand post by sub Simon Ramsden.

Teams:

Manchester United; Rachubka, M Clegg, Pugh, May, Wallwark, Cosgrove (Wood 62), Chadwick, Wilson, Greening, Stewart, Djordjic. Subs (not used) Lynch, Evans, G Clegg, Jones.

Sunderland: Ingham, Makin (Peeters 46), McCartney, Clark, Byrne, T Butler, McGill, Thirlwell (Ramsden 46), Kyle (Reddy 68), Oster, Lumsdon. Subs (not used) Turns, Proctor.

Ref: Steve Coffey

Att: 540.

lManchester United have admitted the intense speculation surrounding players' supposed wage demands could cause unrest in the dressing room. United's deputy chief executive David Gill said: ''We don't specifically speak about players' wages and contracts because we think it's a personal thing between the club and that particular player.

''I think for it come out in this way is a source of frustration and potentially leads to unrest.'