'We are ready to go, but I suppose its one of those occasions where any manager would all say yes when asked if we were ready, but you never know.  You never know until it all kicks off.  Sometimes you play well, sometimes you don't but you can't get too phased out by it.  We will know on Saturday and will probably have a better idea after the first ten games of where we are.'

'With David Worrall and Simon Johnson signing we have quality and competition, plus now we have four wide players on the books.  Its good and I like that a lot, plus there's more good news in that Andy Morrell has trained with the first team for the first time on Thursday.  That's a big boost for everybody.  He brings quality and enthusiasm to everybody plus Bish is on the road to recovery."

'We have moved back onto Lower Gigg Lane for training this week, the environment helps there.  The fence is finished, the pitch is excellent - the whole new training ground is excellent.  Everyone at the club has put loads of work in to get it right and it is really good.  The players walk onto it and you can tell the difference.  You can just see that it's a place of work now and it's certainly aided training this week.'

'It's pretty obvious that I want to be better than last season.  No manager is going to say that we are going to get promoted but everybody starts off that way.  You want to be promoted and if you don't, then there is something wrong.  We did really well last season, so obviously we want to be better than last year and if we can, it will be a great season again.  Last season was a really good season for us, but - last season is last season, it means nothing now but the expectation from last year is now here so we have to manage that."

'Bournemouth hasn't made any changes from last year because of their embargo.  They do have a very settled side.  It's the same group of players but I think they are a very decent team.  I find that when teams and clubs go into administration and they have embargo's slapped on them, instead of separating everybody, it brings everybody closer together and that happened with them last year.  The players become more close knit and they become a better unit.  The layers there know that they will play and I expect a really tough game with them on Saturday, but they will look at this game - Bury away - as a really tough game.'

'The fans have a massive part to play, their role is huge.  There will be periods of the game where we don't have the ball.  Don't get frustrated.  We saw it last year and very rarely could you say that the team wasn't trying where as before, it felt like that.  We do need more people through the gates; it's as simple as that.  We are trying our best and last season we did it, we got more people through the door, now its keeping them for the whole season.  If we can get 3,500 or 4,000 every week, then we will be good shape."

Alan Knill's full video interview is now available on 'Shakers Player' with a full 25 minutes of the gaffer looking forward to the new season.  Subscribers can login now to watch the gaffer in full flow.  For those not subscribed, click here to sign up - more details on Shakers Player can be found here