KEVIN Blackwell blames the previous regime for Bury’s precarious position, but says the current directors have to learn lessons from their own mistakes if the club is to move forward.

The Bury boss believes signings and contract offers made by his predecessor Richie Barker have left the squad desperately short on depth, experience and quality.

But he has questioned the board’s role in the process and challenged them to right the wrongs of the past two years.

“The problem the club has got was the policy that was done in the summer. It’s left us in a terrible shape,” he said.

“I think people have seen that I know my job, but there’s only so much as a manager that you can do.

“Then you’ve got to say that it’s down to the other powers that be, who have got their roles to play.”

Bury sold four high-profile players over the course of last season - Kyle Bennett, Damien Mozika, Ryan Lowe and Mike Jones - and then lost influential loan players Nathan Clarke, Mike Grella and Giles Coke at the end of the campaign. 

Blackwell very quickly highlighted the standard of summer signings brought in to replace them as one of the major problems blighting the club.

He has since loaned former Rotherham midfielder Marcus Marshall to Grimsby until the end of the season and released striker Lateef Elford-Alliyu, while the Bury boss is only using TNS capture Craig Jones sparingly.

Blackwell is also thought to be unhappy with the length of contracts given to 40-year-old defender Efe Sodje and forward Andy Bishop, who has been blighted by injuries in recent seasons and is currently out with a heel problem.

And he has questioned the sense of recruiting veteran striker David Healy and defender Adam Lockwood, who played less than 30 league matches between them last season.

Lockwood has been missing since November, and this week underwent a hip operation that will keep him out for the remainder of the season, while Healy has endured lengthy injury lay-offs this campaign.

“We’ve got so many players that are injured, without anybody really looking at their previous records before they were signed,” said Blackwell.

“I think we all recognise now where the mistakes have been made. The fact is though that the Football League will decide what we can and can’t do.

“When you have a crisis, you need to be able to control it. We do not control what is happening to us at the moment, I’m afraid, so we’re in the lap of the gods to a degree.”

But he added: “You reap what you sow. What’s been happening for the last 12 to 14 months at this club is giving us a right kick in the teeth now, isn’t it?”