ANDY Preece has put the onus on his fringe players to lift Bury's form after the disappointing 3-1 home defeat to Southend.

The performance was a far cry from last week's Worthington Cup heroics at Bolton and the Shakers supremo reckons his established first teamers need the fear of demotion to spark them back into life.

"Our inconsistency is so frustrating. We've got to find something from somewhere inside ourselves to turn these performances into wins," he said.

"We are making it too easy for teams to score against us. All they are doing is putting balls in the mixer and they are getting results.

"We have to cut that out and be more ruthless at both ends if we want to be in a strong position at Christmas.

"It's not the actual way we are playing but just individual errors that are costing us. It's going to take a lot of hard work and maybe even a change of personnel to turn this around.

"Everyone on the fringe will be pushing for a starting place if we continue to be so inconsistent. Everyone who wants to play has got to show a bit in training because one or two players need to know there's a chance of being dropped. We need people pushing from behind."