BURY’s phoenix club have been encouraged by the interest in their managerial post as the ‘new Shakers’ step up their football operation.

While still waiting on concrete news of their application to play in the North West Counties League next season, Bury AFC have been given enough clarity on their likely placing to begin the hunt for their first boss.

Applications close this evening with chairman Chris Murray delighted with the kind of candidates that have landed in his email inbox so far this week.

He is keen to point out however that while some of the applicants clearly have name value, the new Shakers are looking for someone who is ready for the cut and thrust of the ninth or 10th tier of the pyramid.

“There’s been a few where you’ve looked at it and gone ‘wow’, okay then,” Murray told the Bury Times.  

“We know what sort of candidate we are looking for, however it’s one of those things where you’re bound to get people who are too over-qualified in football terms, but not in the case of the management experience that we want.

“You’ll get those who are under-qualified and are looking for their first opportunity as well.

“Also you hear of a few names who might be interested and you do a bit of a background check on them to see if they’ll meet our criteria.

“Some of those people have been in touch or dropped their CVs in.

“Then you have ex-pros who are looking for their first managerial job and you think ‘I’ve seen them play on TV or live’ and it’s ‘right, okay, interesting’.”

“It’s been a very diverse set of applicants who have put themselves forward so far. Overall the response has been really, really good.”

When released, the job application gained plenty of traction online with the move to appoint a manager a major step in the club’s short history.

The job description asked for a UEFA B coaching licence and “extensive knowledge of the non-league set-up” but as Murray explains, that hasn’t stopped some chancing their arm.

“There’s been a lot of Football Manager and FIFA related ones which is fine and I have gone out of my way to reply to all of them,” he said.

“There’s been a lot of emails come in applying for the job. It’s just a case of now filtering through them to find the serious candidates.

“We’re hoping to have that done by Friday so we can contact the shortlisted candidates.

“Then we’re looking at the possibility of socially-distanced interviews whether it’s Zoom or if there is a venue that has a big enough office to host us.”

A fan-owned community benefit society, Bury AFC’s football board, headed by Murray, will make the initial shortlist with the chairman saying there have been “offers of help from people within football” to then help with the interviews.

Elsewhere, the phoenix club will also soon be asking members to vote on designs for both the home and away kits for the inaugural season.

Steve Dale, owner of the town’s historic two-time FA Cup winners, has said he has a plan to get Bury FC playing in the National League, the top two tiers of non-league next season.

But as things stand, the position of the club is as unclear as ever, the new club looking to ensure there is a team playing in Bury’s name next season.