BURY have swooped to sign a promising young striker in a bid to solve their goalscoring problems.

Sheffield United hitman Andy Smith has been snapped up for a month and could stay till the end of the season if agreement between the two clubs can be reached.

The 20-year-old has played a handful of first team games for United, where he is highly-rated, and is being allowed to move to Gigg Lane to get more experience.

Shakers boss Andy Preece is delighted to have bought a new face in and revealed he had been trailing Smith for a long time.

"I saw him a few times last season and made a note of him then," revealed the Bury manager. "The negotiations have been ongoing for a few weeks and we signed him Thursday morning.

"I've been very impressed with what I have seen. He's still a young lad and a little raw but he's got massive potential. He's very quick, especially off the shoulders of centre halves. He's got great workrate and he never gives defenders any time on the ball.

"He's very similar to Ian Lawson and he'll give us liveliness. It's nice just to see a new face in the dressing room!"

Smith will start tomorrow's important clash at Bristol City where Bury will be looking to end a sequence of nine games without a win.

On the other hand the Bristol outfit have embarked on a 14-match unbeaten run. Preece has had City watched twice and is impressed but not fearful about what he's seen.

"They are a tidy outfit and full of confidence. They like to come out of defence with the ball and they've got lads up front to put the goals in," he said.

"But from what I've seen they don't frighten me and I'm still very confident we can do it. As long as we keep showing the effort and commitment we have been doing we'll be okay. All that's missing is that little bit of extra quality."

"They've had a very good run but there's only four points between us in the league and we've not won for a long while. That's show how tight this league is and how much a victory can change things."