SHAKERS boss Graham Barrow has spelled out loud and clear that striker Chris Porter will not be joining Lancashire rivals Oldham Athletic.

Newly-installed Boundary Park boss Ronnie Moore has targeted the Wigan-born frontman as just the man to lift his side away from the lower reaches of the League One table.

In an audacious attempt, the Latics even wanted to take Porter on loan to the end of the season with a view to him signing a permanent deal, for an undisclosed fee, during the summer.

However, Moore hasn't even contacted Barrow about the player, and that's something else that has upset the Shakers' chief who found out about the approach second hand.

But even if the former Rotherham and Tranmere manager was to get on the phone, he'd get a resounding no from his Bury counterpart who sees Porter as one of the club's brightest prospects.

"We are aware of Oldham's interest in Chris, but as far as I am concerned there is absolutely no chance of him leaving," declared Barrow.

"It would have been nice for their manager to ring me up and discuss it and it's a bit disappointing that they've chosen to go another route.

"Chris is one of the good young players we will be soon sitting down with soon regarding new contracts.

"In one or two years he could be worth a lot of money to our club and you can see the improvement and maturity in him over the past 12 months.

"You only have to look at the way Dave Nugent came on in a short space of time to see what can happen."

With eight league and cup goals to his credit, the rangy 21-year-old is the club's leading scorer since the transfer of Nugent to Preston.

And his recent absence from the first team through injury showed just what an influential player he is as goals dried up, results suffered and the club slid down the table alarmingly.

To let Porter go would be an act of footballing suicide going into the final few games of the campaign, especially as the spectre of relegation from the Football League hasn't yet been killed off.

"It does show that teams are showing an interest in our players so we must be doing something right," Barrow added.

"With young lads like Chris, Simon Whaley and Tom Kennedy at the club we still have the basis of a good team and if we strengthen could have another good go next year.

"We need to get them signed up soon though, and it's going to be difficult not knowing the size of squad we will be working with next season."

The worrying thing for Barrow is that Porter isn't the only soon-to-be out of contract player that is coveted by other managers.

Barnsley are thought to have their eye on player-of-the-season candidate Dwayne Mattis while Stockport County manager Chris Turner has already signed Brian Barry-Murphy twice while in charge of Hartlepool United and Sheffield Wednesday, and he remains a big fan.

It looks like being an difficult and busy summer for Barrow who has the dilemma of trying to assemble a bigger squad due to the introduction of transfer window regulations next season with, as yet, no prospect of an increase in finances.

The manager was aiming to get down to contract negotiations with some of his squad this week and with on-loan strikers Bas Savage and David Moore returning to Reading and Wigan respectively, he was keen to bring in further reinforcements ahead of the upcoming transfer deadline.

On the brighter side, he recognised more green shoots of recovery against Bristol Rovers on Saturday despite drawing a game they were worthy of winning.

"We played well on Saturday, better than against Cambridge and it was just a shame they scored from their first effort on goal," he said.

"It shows that we aren't that far away, some of the lads are getting back to their early season form and we need the others to join them.

"The confidence is coming back and as long as that continues we will be alright.

"We've got to start fancying ourselves to get points from games."