THERE comes a point when a side is on a bad run of results that you have got to strip it right down and go back to basics.

David Flitcroft said after Tuesday night’s FA Cup defeat at Luton that his players and staff had turned a corner following a particularly poor first half at Oxford on Saturday.

They had effectively drawn a line in the sand and decided to go back to their original vision of how the team should play.

The Shakers boss was pleased with the response at Kenilworth Road and asked for more of the same against York this weekend.

That is the right approach to take, but I would go a step further.

It is clear to see the team has lost its way since the 5-0 hammering at Shrewsbury, and that includes the manager and his staff.

Those kinds of freak results happen in football and while you still have to analyse where it went wrong, sometimes you just have to accept it was a bad day at the office and move on.

What the players needed to hear then, after maybe a few home truths, was that the manager still believed in them to right the wrongs of that performance.

Instead, Flicker has been chopping and changing the side ever since and it clearly hasn’t worked.

The results have tailed off and Bury now sit level in the table with teams like Accrington and Morecambe, who have much smaller budgets.

Flicker now needs to strip things right back and put his faith back in the players who helped fire Bury to the top of the table in the early part of the season.

Forget your loan players now, they are not the ones who will be at the JD Stadium in the long term so they are not the ones you should be relying upon to get the club back on the right track.

Barring illness and injuries, Flicker needs to pick a settled side, bringing his own players, such as Chris Hussey, back into the fold.

Players at this level need continuity and routine, they can’t switch it on and off.

On another note, I was aghast at the decision to allow Chesterfield a replay after they had fielded an ineligible player in their second round FA Cup victory at MK Dons.

I am sure Bury fans felt exactly the same after the club was chucked out of the competition for an almost identical offence.

Whether or not they had merely forgotten to get written permission for this player to play, I cannot see how the FA has come to this decision.

The rules are in place, they should stick by them.