BURY chairman Stewart Day has defended the decision to sack Chris Lucketti after just two months in charge.

Lucketti this week became the third Bury boss to be sacked in 14 months but Day feels the board had to act to have any chance of avoiding relegation from League One.

The Shakers were three points from safety at the bottom of the table when Lucketti took charge on November 22.

But, after Saturday’s defeat by Charlton, they are 12 points adrift and failed to score in eight league games under Lucketti.

Day said: “I want to give us the best possible chance of staying in the division and I just didn’t think we looked like improving under Chris.

“The Plymouth performance was unacceptable and I told Chris that. The mood at Carrington wasn’t the best either.

“But these are the same players that beat Shrewsbury and Bradford. Granted, we’ve had a few injuries, but Jermaine Beckford didn’t play against Shrewsbury, and we showed some fight, some passion in that game.

“Normally when you appoint a new manager you get a bit of a spark and that didn’t materialise. We haven’t scored – we didn’t look like scoring – and there wasn’t any fight, so we had to make a call.

“Too many people have gone ‘that’s it, we’re in League Two’. But until it’s mathematically impossible, I don’t accept that.

“If we’d have left it another five or six games it might have been too late. But now we have 19 games left and 57 points to play for, so let’s have a bloody good go!”

Ryan Lowe had six games as caretaker manager before Lucketti’s appointment, including that win against Shrewsbury, and the Shakers’ player-coach has been put back in charge until the end of the season.

Lowe will again be assisted by academy boss Ryan Kidd while former team-mate Steve Schumacher is set to join his backroom team. The ex-Bury midfielder, 33, has been playing for Southport and coaching in Everton’s academy.

“Under Ryan before, we showed some belief and were scoring goals – with the same players,” Day added.

“Lowey and Ryan Kidd understand the players and how to motivate them.”