 Brass is rebuilding his career with Bury |
Chris Brass and Bury have come a long way in the past 12 months and the seasoned defender is enjoying the ride. This time last year Bury were in the throes of a battle to beat the drop to the Conference.
Brass, meanwhile, was not even playing at that level after being farmed out by York City to play on loan for Conference North side Harrogate Town.
The 31-year-old was being made to pay the price for overseeing York's relegation from the Football League as a rookie manager thrown in at the deep end at Bootham Crescent.
Undeterred, he got his head down and served his time with Harrogate, helping them reach the first-round of the FA Cup before finally leaving York last January.
Brass' pay-back has been a role in a revival at Bury which has seen the Shakers emerge as potential play-off candidates and earn a third-round FA Cup tie at home to Ipswich Town.
"It is pleasing, because on a personal level it's been a massive challenge for me," Brass told BBC Sport.
"It was a bizarre turn of fortunes (at York) and I could not move to a League club.
"But I went out and approached it at Harrogate as if I was playing in the Championship and still approached every game and every training session in the same manner.
"A lot of the time I was in the wilderness and it was tough but I have got my rewards.
"It's ironic that I was helping Harrogate on their cup run last year and now it's pleasing to have a third round FA Cup game to look forward to and everything else that's happening."
 | The results have been encouraging and following their barren run, Bury look to be back in business |
Brass' resurgence has been mirrored by that of Bury, who have found life tough, on and off the field, in recent seasons. A remarkable rise to the Championship under Stan Ternent could not be sustained and four years back in the bottom division threatened to end with relegation last season.
Chris Casper, at 31 the league's youngest manager, kept them up but all the good work of last season's run-in threatened to disappear when Bury lost their first four games of the current campaign.
"It was a terrible start and not one that any of us anticipated," Brass said.
"We knew we were moving in the right direction in the latter part of last season.
"We had a good sit down to talk about what we expected and pin-pointed what we needed to take the club forward.
"But the first four games did not pan out as we wanted and it was back to the drawing board."
Casper's plan was a bold one as he promoted some more of his younger players to senior duty and was rewarded with a League Cup win over Sunderland which belatedly kick-started Bury's season.
"That was a turning point. It put smiles back on everybody's faces and brought a bit of belief back," Brass added.
"Chris believes in the players and I believe in them but perhaps with their lack of experience they did not believe in themselves. But they have all reacted really well."
The scouts are now flocking back to Gigg Lane to see if the likes of Richie Baker, Mark Pugh and Andy Bishop can follow in the footsteps of David Nugent, Simon Whaley and Colin Kazim-Richards.
Bishop, previously signed by Brass at York, has scored 12 times this season and struck up a fruitful partnership with Glynn Hurst, whose seven goals will secure him a permanent move from Shrewsbury in January.
| A lot of the time I was in the wilderness and it was tough but I have got my rewards |
"The two strikers have been massive. You have to have strength in depth but when you have a partnership like those two it does make a difference," said Brass.
The former Burnley defender has played his part too, bringing welcome experience alongside skipper Dave Challinor and fellow thirty-something Colin Woodthorpe.
Brass said: "There is a good happy medium. With the level of experience from the older ones we can help the youngsters and they can see how we go about it.
"They can see how high our standards are and they are getting a good insight into what the word professional means.
"In my opinion that has slipped from of the game a bit but people are starting to understand that if they don't keep their standards up and don't perform they don't just go from Bury they can go out of the game."
According to Brass, Casper and his assistant Martin Scott, who arrived during the early season upheaval which saw Ian Miller leave for Leicester City, do set the bar high.
| It was a bizarre turn of fortunes (at York) and I could not move to a League club |
"The results have been encouraging and following their barren run, Bury look to be back in business.
"It is an exciting time and you can sense that, although we are not getting carried away and getting past ourselves," Brass said.
"We realise there is a long way to go and a massive deal of learning for the youngsters.
"But they are going in the right direction and the pleasing thing is that they are being instilled with a winning mentality and there is also a tremendous spirit.
"That was something Chris stressed to me that he wanted when I arrived and something he wanted me to help him with.
"We are by no means the finished article but we have a fantastic work-rate, belief and commitment to each other. The lads don't want to let each other down.
"There really is a great emphasis on team spirit. I only have to go back in my career and where there has been success there has been that spirit."
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