IT'S tin hat time for Bury boss David Flitcroft as he prepares to return to former club Barnsley tomorrow for the first time since being sacked as manager two years ago.

The 42-year-old Bolton-born coach admits he expects a hostile reception, and has even taken tips from good friend Sam Allardyce on how to deal with it.

But after spending more than 20 years in the game, the Shakers manager is confident he can handle whatever flak comes his way.

“I'm not sure (what reaction I'll get),” he said. “I've had stick all my life. I was quite a weighty player, I had strawberry-blonde hair, some people say it's ginger, so I've been abused by football fans for 20 years and not just by away supporters.

"(I've also had stick) from home supporters at most of my clubs, so it's 20 years of having a rhino skin.

“It's something Sam Allardyce talks to me a lot about.

"If you let people in then it can affect you, and if you let people's opinions in then it can affect you."

Flitcroft joined Barnsley in 2011 as assistant to manager Keith Hill before later stepping up to take the hotseat.

He defied the odds in his first managerial post to keep the Tykes in the Championship during his first year in charge at Oakwell, but then lost his job the following year, in December 2013, as results tailed off.

Barnsley were subsequently relegated, while Flitcroft walked straight into the Bury job and set about turning them round from League Two relegation candidates to win promotion with them in his first full season in charge.

Flitcroft's return to Oakwell will be the first league meeting between the Shakers and Barnsley since 1999.

And he is eager to ensure the match remains about the two teams, as Bury bid to bounce back from defeat to Hull in the FA Cup fourth round last weekend and arrest a slide down to 15th in the league table following just one win in their last six matches.

"It's important to me that my emotions are about the team and about Bury football club because it's Bury football club versus Barnsley football club,” he said.

“You get it (abuse) from everywhere being involved in football.

"If you're a player or in staff or management or the chairman, anything to do with a football club, then you know that you're going to come in for stick, it's the territory, it's what we do.

“It's gladiatorial, it's what you do. It's a stadium and there's people in it."