AFTER another glorious away day, David Flitcroft wants to focus on matters closer to home.

It is now 15 matches in all competitions since the Shakers sampled defeat on the road – that at Burton Albion all the way back in January.

But their next two games are on the slightly more problematic patch of Gigg Lane, where Port Vale then Coventry City visit in the next two weekends.

Flitcroft is desperate to see a spark ignite among supporters at home as it has on the road, and is pleading with fans to come down and give the in-form team their backing.

“I hope the win at Sheffield United sends out a message to the fans,” he said. “The supporters that keep travelling away in numbers, they are the supporters that I'm dying to see at Gigg Lane.

"Me and the chairman were on the radio the other day saying 'please come and watch the team'. They deserve your support, they really do, from the new fans that are out there.

"It's been over 50 years since we won at Sheffield United, we won at Walsall the week before, and we've competed in every game this season so I do want to see an enthusiasm coming down to Gigg now, and hopefully we'll get that."

Flitcroft dedicated victory at Bramall Lane to chairman Stewart Day, whose backing has enabled him to assemble a squad now starting to acclimatise to life back in League One.

“It was a great day for the chairman,” he said. “The reason he's built what he's built and is so behind the plan is to come to places like this and compete.

“That's one thing we wanted to do, we wanted to come here and compete, and our supporters wanted us to come here and compete.

“We've felt sorry for ourselves for too long now. This is the future, the future of Bury. I represent the future and Stewart Day does.”

Three consecutive victories on the road mean the Shakers are in fine fettle heading back to home turf this weekend for the visit of Vale.

And Flitcroft reckons every effort is being made within the walls of Gigg Lane to make the venue fit to attract more fans.

“We'll be buzzing going back to Gigg,” he said. “I will be, the chairman will be, the players will be – I'm just hoping now that people get behind it and want to be a part of it,” he said.

“We're trying to get something different for the town, we're trying to get a feel-good factor in the stadium.

“We've got a screen in there to try to entice people in.

“We can't do any more as a club, I don't believe we can, but we'll keep trying because we want to get that 500 missing fans in there, and to build out from that.

“The one thing that we said we would do is compete in this league and we represented that on Saturday.”