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Great Scott

Dave Lawrenson
24/ 4/2008

PAUL Scott has been hailed an ‘ideal man’ to build a squad around after being named Bury’s player of the season for the second successive year.

Bury boss Alan Knill has been blown away by the 28-year-old midfielder’s consistency and enthusiasm since succeeding Chris Casper in the Gigg Land hot-seat at the beginning of February.

And he has been equally impressed with clinical striker Andy Bishop, who was the other big winner at Bury’s annual awards night on Tuesday.

Knill said: "I am delighted that Scotty won the main award as he has been excellent since I came here.

"He has shown me that he is an ideal man to build a squad around.

"You always know what you are going to get from him. He’s a real role model with his ability, effort and enthusiasm. You couldn’t ask for a better captain.

"Andy Bishop is another player who has really impressed me. He scores goals and those type of players are always much sought after but we’ve had no offers for him since I came here. We may get some in the future but I’d love to keep him."

Bishop picked up three player of the season awards – the Frank Holt players’ player prize plus the Billy Ayre memorial and junior Shakers gongs.

He also finished runner-up to Scott in the Forever Bury main player of the season award category.

The other winners were Nicky Adams (young player of the season), Ricky Anane (most promising newcomer), Colin Woodthorpe (mentor of the season) and Dale Stephens (goal of the season versus Bradford City).

Meanwhile, 14th-placed Bury will bid to win their sixth successive home game and dent near neighbours Rochdale’s League Two promotion hopes on Saturday, April 26, kick-off at 3pm.

The Shakers won away at Rochdale twice in the space of three days back in October and Knill is confident of completing a treble on Saturday.

He said: "They are looking for automatic promotion and we are looking to take our winning run at home into next season. So it should be a fascinating game with much more riding on it than your typical end-of-season encounter.

"We are confident we can win it and so are they."

On-loan wing wizard Elliott Bennett will play his final game for Bury on Saturday before returning to his parent club Wolves.

Thigh injury victim midfielder Brian Barry-Murphy is rated as doubtful for the game but strikers Simon Yeo (back) and Andy Mangan (groin) plus defender Andy Parrish (ankle) will come back into contention.

Centre backs Paul Morgan and Dave Challinor have been ruled out for the rest of the season with knee injuries.