BURY have issued a "hands-off" warning to club's chasing star striker Jon Newby.

Ahead of tonight's home match against Cardiff City, chairman Terry Robinson has moved quickly to make it clear that Newby will not be sold.

The chairman said that the sale of full-back Chris Armstrong to Oldham Athletic last month had eased the financial pressure and that he had no intention of putting crowd favourite Newby up for sale.

However, Bury have admitted that a number of clubs, including Luton Town, are continuing to send scouts to Gigg Lane to watch Newby in action.

Robinson said: "Jon Newby is contracted to Bury Football Club and we hope he continues to be a Bury player for as long as possible.

"Jon himself has recently said, on the club's website, that he is very happy here at Bury and we see no reason whatsoever to force him away from Gigg Lane.

"The financial difficulties widely reported in the media have been greatly alleviated by the sale of Chris Armstrong. The club is not about to sell its prize assets.

"We wish to stop dead any rumour that Jon Newby is about to leave. He will remain at Bury for the foreseeable future."

Robinson added: "We can confirm that Luton Town have been watching Jon, but so has many other clubs.

"We have had no contact with Luton Town or Joe Kinnear and we do not expect any.

"Many of our players are attracting interest from several clubs and again, we have not received any bids or had any contact from other clubs."

More scouts will be present at Gigg Lane tonight (kick off 7.45pm) but not just to watch Bury players.

Visitors Cardiff have a string of top notch professionals, including £1m midfielder Graham Kavanagh, who scored in the morale-boosting 3-1 for the Bluebirds over Wrexham on Sunday.

Bury hope to have Jason Jarrett and Harpal Singh back from injury while youngster David Borley is set to make his first league start.

Tonight's match is the first in a series of three vital home games. On Sunday Bury entertain fellow strugglers Northampton Town and next Tuesday Notts County are the visitors.