NICKY Ajose hopes to finally re-establish himself in the Bury line-up after his match-winning brace at Walsall.

The local lad helped the Shakers win League Two promotion when on loan from Manchester United in 2010/11 and was a regular when he returned on loan from Peterborough in 2012/13.

Lee Clark signed the 26-year-old in the summer on a season-long loan from Charlton but then froze the much-travelled striker out of his first-team squad.

With Chris Lucketti now installed as Clark's permanent successor, Ajose aims to keep both the manager and supporters happy.

“It was nice to play – to win and to score was a bonus,” he said. “But I never doubted my own ability.

“We had all the shenanigans at the start of the season. That's over now and I just want to work hard in training, play regularly and score some goals.

“It's been difficult for me this time around. The fans have slated me when I haven't played well regularly for two or three months. Then I score and everybody loves you again. It's just normal.

“I'm from Bury and I'm proud to play for Bury. They love me today, next week they might love me a bit more or they might hate me!

“It is what it is. I'm just glad to be back playing football.”

Lucketti said he felt Ajose deserved a recall after the way he trained during the week. The work the new boss has done with his players was evident at Walsall and Ajose hopes he can now steer the Shakers away from the bottom of League One.

“Since the manager's come in he's been all about hard work and organisation,” he added.

“The lads are taking that onboard and it showed. We're still miles off where we need to be but it's a win.

“We settled into a shape and spent all week working on what we do off the ball. On the ball, we could have done better, but in the key moments we managed to have a bit of quality.

“We had all that at the start of the season, with what was going on. Now Chris has come in and steadied the ship.

“He has said to everyone it's a clean slate, that if we work hard we'll get out of the position we're in, and we can crack on from here.”