SHAKERS' skipper Dave Challinor believes Bury can take a lot of heart from their FA Cup bouts with Scunthorpe ahead of a crucial run of league games.

Chris Casper's men can count themselves unfortunate not to be in the Second Round, but Challinor sees it as a good chance to make progress in the league.

The club captain said: "We've had a great run, the confidence is sky high, and we are being encouraged to play as much as we can.

"Confidence is a massive thing in a footballer's mentality and I think, over the past two months we've shown what we can do.

"Who knows what we can achieve for the rest of the season. We fancied ourselves at the start of the campaign, although we didn't want to go out telling people that, but we know with the squad we have here we can beat most teams in our division.

"The next two home games are vital (Rushden on Saturday and Wycombe the week after) for us to pick up six points and get ourselves up that table."

Looking back on the loss to Scunthorpe, Challinor said: "The result was a kick in the teeth, we had a good go and could have taken them to penalties, but we're out now and we must move on."