I HAD an amazing day on Saturday taking in games at Burnley and then Bury without seeing any goals.

After finishing the commentary at Turf Moor for BBC Radio Lancashire we went straight to the JD Stadium but got their just too late – Danny Mayor scoring the winner as we walked in the door.

I saw it later on the TV and what a goal.

The surge it created was amazing – something I haven’t felt at the ground in the last couple of years I have been back watching the Shakers.

It just had a feeling like it was a proper football club again – as if it had been sleeping and had just woken up.

The expectation is back in the fans and while I know it is only early days I think they have every right to be getting carried away.

I look at the squad, now that the transfer window has closed, and I think I can safely say it is the best in the division.

Not one player looks to be safe in their position. There is competition for every place.

What strikes me is that of all the manager’s 13 signings, I don’t think any of them could be described as a risk.

That is not the way Flicker does his work.

He has gone with players he knows, players he has worked with before or players who have experience of the division and the club.

The bedrock of the team was put in place early – all steady players Flicker knew he could depend on – and then he has been able to sprinkle his side with one or two match winners, like the two goalscorers on Saturday.

Danny Rose has really hit the ground running. I said when he came here that the boy had a point to prove and that is exactly how it has turned out.

And Danny Mayor is Danny Mayor.

I know Flicker said on Saturday that he was not really in the game in the first half, and I had that experience many times with him when he was a young lad at Preston.

Just when you were thinking ‘come on Danny, shake yourself’ he would come up with something extraordinary, like his goal against Accrington.

One last thing I would like to say is well done to the Bury groundsman Mike Curtis.

He has had to work very hard over the past few years, often without the best equipment, to get games on. I think the fact the FA has chosen to stage an England Under-18s game at the JD Stadium is a great credit to him and what he has been able to do, with the help of the club, to turn things around.