DAVID Flitcroft has praised the job done by Neil McDonald at Blackpool ahead of today’s visit to Gigg Lane.

McDonald has turned the struggling Lancashire side’s form around after a difficult start to his reign at Bloomfield Road.

They are unbeaten in their last five games in League One after earning just one point from a possible 15 at the start of the campaign.

The former assistant to Sam Allardyce at Wanderers, Blackburn and West Ham, who turned down the chance to manage Bury earlier in his career, stepped out from big Sam's shadow in the summer and recently turned down the chance to join him at Sunderland.

And Bury boss Flitcroft has been impressed by McDonald's ability to pick up a club that was still reeling from relegation and beset with problems off the field, as fans protested against chairman Karl Oyston.

“I think off-field activities have not helped in pre-season and you could see that in Neil’s first six weeks,” he said.

“It looked a difficult ship to steady but given time good football people like Neil Mac, who has been around Sam a long time (will come good).

“You put a process in place, you keep looking at recruitment, you keep looking at getting the thing right and you hope the tide will change and turn, and that’s what he’s done at Blackpool.”

Flitcroft says he was in a similar position at Barnsley, where he cut his teeth as a manager after taking over from long-time mentor Keith Hill.

And the Bolton-based Shakers manager reckons McDonald has shown the same single-minded approach that helped him save the Tykes from relegation in his first season at Oakwell.

“He’s done really well at tuning out the background noise of what has been going on behind the scenes,” said Flitcroft, who has battened down the hatches himself at Bury over the last week following a run of five matches without a win.

“It’s something Sir Alex Ferguson told me at Barnsley. Concentrate on the green – concentrate on the grass, concentrate on the training ground – and you will be successful.

“Neil Mac has been able to do that, really concentrate on the training ground and that’s where you get your results.

“So it’s going to be a tough test, they are in form, we have just fallen out of a little bit of form and I just can’t wait for the game.”

While Flitcroft remembers fondly the help given to him by Sir Alex, he was also grateful this week of a friendly turn from another Old Trafford legend – Mark Hughes.

The Stoke boss came to his aid late on Monday night to fix Bury up with on-loan keeper Daniel Bachmann, who Flitcroft had watched in an Under-21s match against Blackburn.

“Mark Cartwright, the technical director, and Mark Hughes, we could still get hold of them at 11 o'clock at night,” he said.

“It’s incredible that these people took the time to really help us out in a bit of a desperate situation so massive thanks to Mark Hughes.

“It just shows you that some people don’t forget where they have come from.

“I think other managers when they get to the next level sometimes do forget and leave younger managers down there and they don’t support them like they probably should do.”

Bachmann will make his debut for Bury against Blackpool today, in place of the injured Rob Lainton, while captain Nathan Cameron faces a fitness test after picking up a knee injury in last weekend’s defeat at Shrewsbury.