ALAN Knill has challenged his players to cement their places in the starting line-up by winning games and firing a promotion push.

Glynn Hurst, with two goals, and Ben Futcher impressed when restored to the starting 11 in the 4-0 defeat of Gillingham on Saturday – and both staked their claim for a regular berth.

The manager is hoping to sign at least one new player on loan this week after drawing a blank during negotiations last week, but Knill says the men in possession will keep their shirts if they keep producing the goods.

“The players in the starting line-up retain their shirts if they keep on winning,” said Knill. “But they also know that if they don’t perform as well as they should there will be people pushing for their place because I am trying to build a squad here.

“It was fantastic that Hursty and Bishop scored a brace each at the weekend, and Hursty took his chance well after biding his time.

“The strikers know, however, that Andy Morrell is on the bench and will probably be feeling he has something to prove now. He will be ready when his chance comes around again.

“We are in a decent position in the league now, and that proves that we can compete with anyone in this league. Now it’s a case of getting consistency into our results.”

Knill believes Saturday’s victory was inevitable once his team stopped making mistakes at the back, and he says a win over Accrington Stanley on Saturday will cap a decent month’s work in League Two.

“Until Tuesday night’s games, we had the fifth best record in the league this month,” said Knill, who steered his side to victories over Notts County and Gillingham either side of a defeat to Grimsby.

“We want to go and get something at Accrington now. We know it’s a tough place to go and they have a decent team with players like Paul Mullin in their team.

“We reckon we can count on some good away support though. We played them in the final game of last season up there and we took a fair amount of supporters – and that boosted the lads.”

Knill is also thankful that normality has temporarily resumed to the Shakers’ workload after a hectic few weeks that saw Bury playing twice a week.

“It’s much easier when you play once a week,” said Knill. “We can do more with the lads in training without worrying about them getting tired.

“We have worked hard in training this week and there has been a good mood around the place after beating Gillingham. We just have to keep it up now.”

The only minor concern for Bury ahead of the trip to Accrington is Futcher, who missed training on Tuesday through illness.

Knill, however, reckons the giant defender should be okay for Saturday.