AT this stage of the season you might imagine that all the majority of footballers are thinking about is the beach and their holidays.

Certainly, that might be the case for those at clubs with little left to play for, but there is also something else going on that Bury could really stand to benefit from.

Footballers being footballers, they talk, and those maybe looking to move on will be attracted by the positive noises coming out of the JD Stadium right now.

The form that Bury have been showing, coupled with the style of football they are playing under David Flitcroft and the forward-thinking leadership shown by the chairman will be an attraction for any player looking for a new club.

Players will see it as a club moving forward and that could prove to be a big pulling point.

You saw the same thing happen in reverse at the start of this season when the then Bury captain Steven Schumacher signed for Fleetwood.

From the outside, it may have seemed like a strange move, but it was definitely the right thing for him to to do.

Steven had to think of his family, and at that time Bury were in turmoil, while it was well known in the game that Fleetwood had a good young manager and an ambitious chairman.

Just like Bury are now, they were on the rise and that positive momentum has taken them to the verges of an automatic promotion place.

The Bury chairman, Stewart Day, has already come out saying that’s what he wants for the club – to be vying for promotion next season. That heaps the pressure on, but it is a nice kind of pressure and one other players will want to buy into.

On a completely different note, I just wanted to say how poignant last weekend’s tribute to the Hillsborough victims was.

I was playing for Bury that day and I can clearly remember my own feelings on finding out about the tragedy at half time as my dad was actually at Hillsborough.

He was in the stand next to the Leppings Lane end and could see quite a bit of what was going on but actually didn’t realise just how bad it was until he got home.

One of the victims’ parents summed it up perfectly at the weekend saying that aside from all of the talk of blame and recrimination, the basic reality is that fans went to a football game and didn’t come home.

I just hope we never see the like of it again.