YOU’VE got to have a pretty thick skin in football these days.

It takes nothing for your fans to start booing. You might say it is part and parcel of the modern game.

So when it happened at half time against Northampton Town at the weekend it wasn’t a great surprise, given how the team were playing.

What did come as a shock to me was that David Flitcroft decided to have a pop, especially after the Shakers went and won the game with 10 men.

I used to get booed at Gigg Lane, and that was in a very good team playing a division higher. You had to take it on the chin because the same people would be cheering you five minutes later. Flitcroft should have done the same.

He might not have been able to stand and boo at the tunnel but it was quite clear he was unhappy with how his side were playing at half time because he made two changes.

I’m sure he stripped a bit of paint off the dressing room walls too because they came out and played much better after the break.

Why not concentrate on that?

Fans want exactly the same thing as the staff and the players and that’s to get promotion – chucking a grenade in at this stage of the season makes no sense at all.

I’m a football fan and I’ve done my fair share of moaning from the stands. It isn’t always logical, people don’t always see the big picture, but if you are going to be a manager I think you have got to understand that.

Thankfully, it looks like the Shakers have got that habit of winning games at just the right stage of the season. I can see them going up automatically the way things are going.

The teams at the top have been round there for a long time and are starting to wobble.

Only one team is really moving in the right direction and that includes Saturday’s opponents Southend, who have not been winning games regularly at all but are still in the mix.

I’m sure it will be a good game but Bury look to have their eyes on the prize at the minute and it would be a shame to see them distracted over something as trivial as a bit of moaning in the stands.