BURY manager David Flitcroft led the tributes to club president Fred Mason after he died on Friday, aged 73, following a long illness.

Mason, who helped pull Bury out of administration after stepping in as joint chairman alongside John Smith in 2002, also worked as a director for many years.

Fans, management and players expressed their grief on Saturday after waking up to the news, with Flitcroft, who worked under Mason as a player, describing him as a “man of high integrity”.

“As a player, my thoughts of Fred were the honesty and sincerity he had,” said the Shakers boss.

“When I had problems or the team had problems Fred would be a man of high integrity. As a director he always listened to players.

“He was a genuine man, a gentleman and someone who had Bury at his heart.

“It’s a deep loss, but a man whose life we should celebrate because he has had a big influence on everybody here at Bury as an outstanding ambassador for the football club.”

Mason handed Nicky Adams the man-of-the-match award at the final game he attended last weekend, when Bury beat Burton Albion to move top of League Two.

Adams was one of the first to take to Twitter to express his sadness, while Ryan Lowe, who also worked closely with Mason during his first spell at the club, said the players desperately wanted to win at Exeter on Saturday as their own special tribute.

“If we could have won that game for him we would,” said Lowe, following the 2-1 defeat.

“The team talk before the game was about Fred and we had the black armbands on as well, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it.

“It’s a sad thing to say, but I think he would have been happy last week to see Bury top of the league and the performance we put in after the few years when the club went astray.”

And Flitcroft added: “Massive sadness obviously for the loss of a great man - I am just glad we were able to give him the send off against Burton that he fully deserved.”