DEAN Kiely believes his team are getting back to the Bury of old. The Shakers have been increasingly criticised for losing their battling edge this season, sparking skipper Chris Lucketti to launch a furious attack on the bad mouthers last week.

They hit back at their detractors with an impressive battling draw against Crystal Palace on Saturday to end a run of four straight defeats and go into tonight's relegation showdown with Bristol City with renewed confidence.

Kiely said: "We made a conscious effort to get back to the Bury of old on Saturday. "Everyone was clued in and that's the Bury of old. At the end of the match I shook everyone's hand and told them I appreciated their efforts."

Kiely, understood to be on Blackburn's shopping list for a new goalkeeper to replace the unhappy Tim Flowers, revealed the team's points target for the season and predicted they could take a huge step towards their aim at Ashton Gate tonight.

"There are only a handful of teams better than us on our day in this division and Bristol City aren't one of them. "I said it last year, 50 points will do us. Regardless of how anybody else is doing, that's our target and we've got to be single-minded to achieve that as soon as possible."

Right back Dean West is unlikely to recover from a chest virus which affected his breathing on Saturday and Andy Woodward is on standby to return to the starting line-up.

Up front Adrian Littlejohn is challenging for a return with Andy Preece most under pressure for his place.

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