GEOFF Durbin is a man with a mission – to help chairman Stewart Day and manager David Flitcroft realise their dream of Championship football with Bury. 

The club’s newly appointed chief operating officer spent 14 years at Manchester City as commercial manager and the last 15 years as commercial director at Lancashire Cricket Club.

So he believes he has the experience to provide the club with the financial and commercial platform to match the directors’ ambition.

“My job is to run the commercial side of the club and hopefully build on success that has been evident over the last couple of years and take us on to another level,” said Durbin.

The Stockport-born dad-of-two accepts that while fans have been buoyed by the club’s recent promotion from League Two, a minority remain concerned the Shakers could easily return to the previous years of boom and bust if they aim too high.

But after overseeing massive changes at both City and Lancashire – more recently helping the county cricket club turn from a loss-making business into a £4million profit – he believes the lessons learned in his previous roles can have an impact at Bury

“I would challenge the perception of negativity,” he said, referring to criticism waged by more enthusiastic fans about their fellow supporters.

“What you are describing is caution, concern and doubt. Ask any fan of virtually any football club do they trust everything the club does, do they have doubts and fears? Of course they do.

“My main experience (in football) was obviously at City and when I was there I saw the same sort of doubt, concern and caution when the first or second takeover happened.

“Yeah, people thought this would never happen at City but it has happened and look at what is happening there now.

“So I don’t think we should spend time worrying about whether supporters are negative because it is natural to be concerned.

“All I would ever do is take people at face value. I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t believe what I was being told.

“You overcome those emotions by achieving results. If those results don’t come then people will say ‘I told you so’ and people would have a right to do that.

“It’s not for me to promise what is going to happen, all I can tell you is I believe in the good things that are happening at this football club.

“I will just be focused on working with the rest of the people here on the visions and dreams that the chairman has got and I know the fans have got. If we can make them become a reality then great.”

Durbin’s arrival has coincided with Bury announcing a raft of new lucrative commercial deals with kit supplier New Balance and shirt sponsor Village Hotels.

He will also be involved in negotiations over the stadium naming rights, after helping Lancashire secure a 10-year deal with Emirates for Old Trafford.

“I have come here to help use the experience I have got to hopefully make Bury an efficient, happy, successful place from a commercial operating point of view and to support the work of the chairman and other people here, so I’m really excited, just as excited as I was when I walked in at Maine Road or Old Trafford all those years ago.

“Here there is a real parallel to what I did at Lancashire in making it a sustainable business. The big question is how do we make Bury FC sustainable in the next few years.

“I would be nuts to think that’s not a huge challenge but it is one the chairman and many other people here have clearly got to grips with and want to achieve.

“The first stage was achieving promotion last season, which was fantastic for the club. Off the field there is a lot to do.

“It is going really well and there are a lot of positives here.

“To make us sustainable in the Championship there is work to be done but there is a real appetite for that.

“I am certainly looking forward to that.

“It will take some time, you are not instantly going to be able to make a club like this sustainable without any other income coming in but that is the intention and I think we have got a real chance to do that.”