BURY boss David Flitcroft believes the club’s move to Manchester City’s former Carrington training base has already helped inspire the players to back-to-back wins.

While the deal was only announced on Tuesday, the first-team squad were given a taste of what was to come with a couple of secret sessions at the complex.

Victories over Cheltenham Town and Hartlepool followed and Flitcroft is confident the feelgood factor in the camp created by the move could prove to be significant.

“The two wins have probably come off the back of us training here to give them a stimulus,” admitted Flitcroft, whose side jumped to seventh, back in the play-off places, following their recent victories.

The players were back at Carrington today as they prepared for consecutive matches against play-off rivals – at sixth-placed Plymouth on Saturday and at home to fourth-placed Luton next Tuesday.

And while the Shakers manager accepts their Premier League facilities will give the League Two club a competitive advantage, he warned they offer no cast-iron guarantee of promotion.

“We have introduced the players to it and we have had six points off the back of that,” said Flitcroft.

“They are stimulated – they can’t believe it. They keeping asking the chairman ‘How have you done this, how have you pulled this off?’

“But getting this training ground doesn’t guarantee anything.

“What it allows us to do is set out a winning culture and it is an incredible place for the players to come to work.

“Of course it gives us an advantage, but we must still work just as hard to be competitive.”

One advantage Flitcroft believes may be key, however, is the potential lure Carrington could have for prospective signings, starting with on-loan pair Charlton keeper Nick Pope and Bristol City centre-back Adam El-Abd.

“It gives Popey and Adam an interesting decision to make about what they want to do with their next two to three years,” he added. “It gives us a different impact to signing players.”

While Flitcroft is focussed on winning promotion, chairman Stewart Day admitted he is already looking beyond the five-year term of the current lease.

“The initial five years we agreed with Manchester City were put in place where it could grow longer than that,” he said, calling time on plans to build their own training base in Bury while refusing to rule out the possibility of one day trying to buy the Carrington complex outright.

“Certainly we are not just looking to the short-term. If it goes right for both parties we will be looking to extend the lease. Once you have got facilities like this it is very difficult to go somewhere else.

“The cost to develop our own facilities to get something even remotely close to what we have got here would be quite astronomical.”

Day added that he would be holding negotiations over the club’s former Lower Gigg training pitch, which they lease off Bury Council, with a plan to open it up to grassroots clubs in the town, including Bury Ladies Football Club.

Bury centre-back Pablo Mills has moved to League Two strugglers Cheltenham Town on loan until the end of the season. The 30-year-old defender has made 44 appearance for the Shakers since signing in December 2013, but has not played for the first team since December 20 after limping off with a groin injury during the 2-2 draw at home to York.