BRIAN KENNEDY has put his plans to move to Gigg Lane on hold -- and by doing so may have condemned Bury FC to, at best, non-league football and, at the worst, extinction.

The Shakers Supporters Trust have done a marvellous job in raising the necessary cash to take the club out of administration and once the new Football League season gets under way in mid August a little more cash may be forthcoming to keep things going -- but don't hold your breath!

The Shakers found it difficult enough to break crowds of 3,000 in Division Two. Their average was only 5,000 in the days of Division One football at Gigg Lane in the not too distant past.

Next season it will be an achievement if Bury can attract much more than 2,000 to their home games.

What Kennedy would have done if he had moved in with his Sharks would have given the football club a degree of stability.

There wouldn't have been vast amounts of cash available to spend on making Bury the Real Madrid of the North West, Kennedy stated that he wouldn't be splashing any of his cash out in that direction, but with a wealthy owner and gates of up to 5,000 coming in for the rugby union matches, allied to whatever Bury could manage for the football, things surely would have, at least, ticked over reasonably comfortably.

Manchester United reserves are still due to play some games at Gigg Lane next season, but Swinton's future at Bury appears to be non-existent.

Kennedy has been linked with rugby league in the past and has attempted to move in on Super League outfits Warrington and St Helens. A set-up similar to the one at Wigan, where Dave Whelan rules the roost over Wigan Athletic, Orrell and Wigan RLFC, springs immediately to mind.

However, if and when he does rekindle his plans to move to Bury -- and that could be either mid-season or not until the 2003-2004 campaign -- Kennedy will have no room for Swinton Lions.

The Lions are on the point of taking up residence at the ground of non-league soccer outfit, Salford City. Currently playing their home fixtures at Leigh's Hilton Park stadium while work is done on the GIgg Lane pitch, it is a well-known fact the Lions are not really wanted at Gigg next term.

Kennedy said: "I would not look at running more than the rugby union and Bury FC on the pitch at Gigg Lane. To have a rugby league team playing there as well would be a team too many. We would have to try and protect the playing surface as much as possible."

Kennedy's reasons for wanting to switch from Sale's Heywood Road ground are sound. It's too small and he feels his team deserve more support.

Time has gone against him as far as the move to Bury goes at the moment. "It would take around eight weeks to set things up for the move and we are due to start playing rugby union again in ten weeks time," says Kennedy.

"That's why I have made the decision to stay at Heywood Road for the foreseeable future. It's to give us a level of certainty.

"But wether it be mid-season or next season, if moving to Bury appears to be the right thing to do we will do it.

"As for our supporters in Sale and whether they would come with us, I am sure we would attract support wherever we played with the Sharks if we were winning games and offering decent facilities.

"It costs us £3.5 million a year in wages for the rugby union team, so we need to be pulling in gates of 10,000. We can't do that at Heywood Road and it just so happens that Bury has come up with a ground with the facilities and it is relatively near."

So there is still hope. All Bury FC have to do is stay alive until the transplant comes off.