A west Suffolk businessman has given the town’s football club a £3,000 boost with a new sponsorship deal.

Abdus Shahid, the owner and chef at Indian restaurant Valley Connection, in Churchgate Street, has pledged the sum to Bury Town in yet another show of support for the town’s sport and charities.

Mr Shahid has sponsored the club’s shorts for home and away matches to the tune of £3,000.

A recent curry night at Valley Connection for Bury Town players and supporters raised more than £1,000 for the club, in the first fundraising effort since Bury’s recent financial troubles came to light.

Mr Shahid has previously lent his hospitality and culinary skills to worthy causes such as St Nicholas Hospice Care and the St Edmundsbury Mayor’s charities, Cancer Research and Moreton Hall Youth Club, and says that more local businesses should do their bit for the area.

Mr Shahid said: “Every business needs to be involved in the Suffolk community. If the local area is doing well, if the local teams are doing well, then that’s good news for business. I support a lot of sports and other charities as well. We’ve always got more events planned as we want to get more people in the restaurant and help the local community.”

There are two further nights planned with the Bury Town players at Valley Connection, with club chairman Russell Ward saying demand from fans for tickets was already on the up.

He added: “It’s brilliant. It’s well documented we’ve gone through some hard times and it’s great to see the local businesses are supporting us, and Abdus is supporting us as well as anyone.

“It was a struggle coming up to Christmas, but since then everything has been positive, the club is getting back on track financially now and local business supporting us is vital.

“We will be doing a lot more things with Valley Connection and we do encourage our supporters to pay them back with a visit.”

The burgeoning relationship came about through the club’s new commercial team of Dan Bush and Clive Boughton, who were appointed to drive new sponsorship activity and get the club firing again off the field. More announcements are expected over the coming weeks.