SHAKERS 'keeper Dean Kiely has issued a heartfelt plea for all Bury fans to get 100 per cent behind the team in Sunday's crucial final game of the season.

After Saturday's 1-0 reverse at West Bromwich Albion, victory over Port Vale at Gigg Lane still might not be enough to ensure safety if Queens Park Rangers defeat Crystal Palace at Loftus Road.

But the single-minded Shakers will only have one thing on their minds when they line up against the Potteries outfit at 1.30pm - victory and three vital points - and Kiely believes the supporters have a massive part to play.

"We really need the fans to get behind the lads and give them a big lift on Sunday," he said. "As was shown in the Bolton game it makes a massive difference to the team.

"Even if events take a turn for the worse early on we've got to keep battling away because the situation won't be won or lost until the end of the 90 minutes.

"And Sunday is a day when, whatever your personal opinion about certain players is, we need everyone who supports Bury to get behind ALL the lads.

"We're far from dead and buried yet and there's still everything to play for. We've just got to keep it alive at our end by beating Port Vale.

"We are more than capable of doing that, then it's in the hands of the Gods what happens at Loftus Road!" With a superb record of 18 clean sheets to his name this season, it's amazing that Kiely and the resolute Shakers defence should find themselves in such a precarious situation on the final day of the campaign.

But a depressing lack of goals (no team has scored fewer in the Nationwide League) has been a thorny problem for Neil Warnock's side all season.

"We went through a period earlier in the season when we were getting heavily beaten but over the past dozen games we've rectified things and more than held our own in some close games," added Kiely.

"But all too often we haven't found the goal that would give us the extra points. It's there in black and white that we haven't scored anywhere near enough.

"But I'll never point a finger at our forwards. We defend as a team and score as a team at Bury and that's been our great strength over the past few seasons."

And Kiely is firmly of the belief that Steve Coppell's Palace side can certainly do the Shakers a favour even though they would appear to have nothing to play for.

"It's a misconception that teams in mid-table don't try in matches.

"Players are playing for contracts and playing for moves so it's not in their interests to ease up, it's also an insult to their professionalism!"

And he refused to be drawn on the suggestion that this might be his final game in a Bury shirt - whatever the outcome of the relegation battle.

"Things like that are in other people's hands and it certainly won't be in my mind," he said.

"It's not the time for me to talk about individual goals but Sunday will come and go and regardless of the outcome I will be under contract to Bury Football Club."

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