HAVING celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary by serenading his wife in Sorrento, Shakers' boss Graham Barrow is back at Gigg Lane.

Having set himself a target of an 18-strong first team squad, he is back on the phone trying to achieve his target.

"I've made offers to a number of players and at the moment I'm trying to tie-up Colin Woodthorpe and Matty Barrass," he said.

"Colin is on holiday until tomorrow, but we're expecting him to sign next week, and as far as Matty is concerned there's just a couple of technicalities we need to address.

"Once those two are sorted out I can concentrate of bringing in at least four new faces.

"With Woodthorpe and Barrass we'll have 14, ideally I'd like to add a centre back, midfield player, a couple of strikers and a utility player."

His priority at the moment is a striker - or two.

"I don't think things have worked out for John Newby at Huddersfield and he'd be an excellent replacement for Seddon. He enjoyed his time here and he's interested in returning," said Barrow.

"Another striker would give us four, with Nugent and Porter, which I would think would be a useful strike force in this division."

Where strikers are concerned age would not be a barrier.

"One thing we have at this club is good young players like Dave Nugent (18) and Chris Porter (19), so I think we could get away with someone in his 30s who has seen it and done it but who still has some ambition left. There are ways and means of winning games and experience plays a big part.

"We're also looking for someone a little bit different in midfield, someone who has got legs, who can get from box to box, as well as a utility player who can give us cover down the left and of course a centre back."

When ever centre back is mentioned everyone always thinks of Dave Challinor, but Barrow admitted that may not be possible.

"Challinor is on hold at the moment," he said.

"He's away on holiday and as much as I rate him - if he returned he would probably be captain, because he fitted in so well last season - if we can't get him we'll move on to the next one, because there's two or three available that fit the bill."

Yet it is not just other league sides he is competing with when it comes to snapping up the perfect piece to complete the jigsaw.

"There are more players around than last year but to be honest the Conference teams are a bit of a nuisance now," he said.

"The money they are offering is quite unbelievable, especially now there is the new Conference North and South tier.

"I've talked to some lads at Chester and and they've told me that the likes of Kings Lynn are offering amazing money that we couldn't and wouldn't want to match."

In addition to losing striker Dave Nugent to Rushden and Diamonds, Bury have also lost physio Lee Nobes who is joining Oldham Athletic.