BURY captain Steven Schumacher reckons the Gigg Lane crowd can play a key role in getting the Shakers promoted to League One.

The 26-year-old midfielder was forced to sit out Saturday’s impressive 3-0 home win over Oxford United through suspension, but played a key role acting as Richie Barker’s number two from the dugout, following the departure of manager Alan Knill, assistant Chris Brass and goalkeeper coach Neil Cutler to Scunthorpe United on Thursday.

The Gigg Lane faithful were swelled to above 3,000 and the atmosphere went up a notch as both supporters and players showed they were not going to let Knill’s departure derail their promotion bid.

And Schumacher believes the fans will need to show similar passion and commitment in their four remaining home games if Bury are to go up.

The Shakers play three games on the bounce at Gigg following Saturday’s trip to Northampton, all against teams not in the promotion frame – Burton, Barnet and Lincoln – before a visit to league-leaders Chesterfield and difficult end-of-season clashes at home to Wycombe and at Stevenage.

“They were great,” Schumacher said of the crowd’s support for the Oxford clash. “As soon as we came out the atmosphere was there.

“We’ve got four more home games and, apart from Wycombe, they’re against teams in the lower half of the division.

“But we’ve got to make sure that the atmosphere is like that.

“It’s easy when you’re playing teams near the top to generate that atmosphere, but we also need the fans totally behind us for the other games.”