EX-BURY boss Mike Walsh hopes a way can be found to keep Bury and Gigg Lane together as one entity next season.

Reports in the national press claim that Steve Dale is looking to put the Shakers into the National League system for the 2020/21 campaign, resolve the Company Voluntary Agreement and potentially step down in order to comply with the competition’s rules.

Though Walsh believes fans are unlikely to give wholesale backing to Dale if he maintains links with the club – he does hope a resolution can be found which keeps Bury at their historic home next season.

“I would like to think they could keep it all together and from what I read, the fella in charge feels that he can do that – but I don’t see anyone supporting him personally. It has gone too far,” he told The Bury Times.

“I don’t think it is the end of the world to drop down a couple of divisions. At least it is still going.

“At the moment people haven’t got anywhere to go on a Saturday. It has been taken away.

"Somehow, some way, it has to be rescued so that there is something going forward.”

Alternative plans have already gained momentum in the shape of Bury AFC, who could start life in the North West Counties League when football resumes next season.

Walsh was no stranger to financial hardship in the boom and bust days of the nineties, and he recalls a time when most of his squad was not fully professional.

“It’s never easy at Bury but it’s a great club,” said the 63-year-old, wishing the new venture well.

“For a short while we were lucky to have Hugh Eaves but then when that stopped it was a case of battening down the hatches.

"For us it meant going part-time and having some lads coming in to train on Tuesdays and Thursdays, others on Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

“If the future for Bury is to step back down, to play somewhere else, to cut their cloth accordingly, then you just hope they have got the right people in there to organise it because it won’t be easy.”