Bury

Bury FC is a professional football club from the former industrial town, a few miles northwest of Manchester. The 'Shakers' began life in 1885 after a meeting at the Swan and Cemetery Hotel between two former clubs, Bury Wesleyans and Bury Unitarians.

Bury played friendly games before becoming founder members of the Lancashire League in 1889, where the club was crowned as champions in 1890-91 and 1891-92. Following a further runners-up place, the club was elected to become founder members of Division Two of the Football League in 1894-95.

Bury had already made big news previously when they played their first ever floodlit game. Their League career started in fine style as they were promoted to Division One as champions after defeating Liverpool in a ‘Test Match’. It would be in the FA Cup where the Shakers would make their mark, lifting the trophy in 1899-00 following a 4-0 win against Southampton. 

The final was played at Crystal Palace, as a brace from Jasper McLuckie was added to by goals from William Wood and John Plant. This feat was outdone in 1902-03 as Bury went on to win the competition by hammering Derby County 6-0 at the same venue, with the side being once again led by club secretary Harry Spencer Hamer.

My picture of Gigg Lane and Bury kits over the years.
To see enlarged versions, click on the images.

Goals in the final were scored by skipper George Ross, Charlie Sagar, Joe Leeming, along with Wood and Plant as Bury emulated the record of the Preston North End ‘Invincibles’ side in not conceding throughout the run. The team couldn’t emulate their form in the league and were eventually relegated in 1911-12 after an earlier narrow escape. 

Bury regained their Division One place in 1923-24 after a season ending as the second tier runners-up, before dropping back down in 1928-29. Worse was to come in 1956-57 as Bury were relegated to Division Three North. Under manager Dave Russell, a young team went back up to Division Two in 1960-61 as champions. Colin Bell was introduced to the team from 1963 at the start of a stellar career.

The 1962-63 season also saw a run to the semi-final of the League Cup before bowing out to Birmingham City under manager Bob Stokoe. Bell was sold to Manchester City in the summer of 1966, with Bury being relegated the following season. Bert Head had a short spell as manager before Les Shannon led the team back to Division Two in 1967-68. 

The spell at that level lasted just twelve months; which led to a procession of managers in a short time; with Jack Marshall, Les Hart and Colin McDonald having short tenures. Tom McAnearney took over but couldn’t help the team from relegation to the bottom flight in 1970-71. Alan Brown followed in the hot seat before Bobby Smith was appointed to the hot seat in December 1973, leading Bury to promotion in 1973-74.

A returning Stoke and then Dave Hatton were the next managers to try to lift the mood at Gigg Lane before the team went back down to Division Four under Dave Connor in 1979-80. Jim Iley steadied the ship before former England international Martin Dobson led the team to promotion in 1984-85. Dobson was sacked and replaced by Sam Ellis after the 1988-89 season. 

His side reached the playoffs in 1989-90, where they lost to Tranmere Rovers in the semi-finals. Ellis remained in place until December 1990, when Mike Walsh was appointed. The Shakers reached the 1990-91 playoff semi-finals before Bolton Wanderers ended any dreams of promotion. 

Bury were relegated in 1991-92 before falling at the semi-final stage of the playoffs to York City to deny a chance of regaining a third-tier place at the first attempt. The 1994-95 campaign saw more playoffs, but this time a win as Preston North End were defeated before a defeat to Chesterfield at Wembley. Walsh departed with Stan Ternent becoming the new manager.

The bottom League level had been renamed Division Three. The Shakers won promotion in 1995-96 before becoming Division Two champions the following season to finally climb back to the second level of the Football League. Stars of the show were keeper Dean Kiely, defenders Paul Butler and Chris Lucketti, while forwards Ronnie Jepson and Davis Johnson scored the goals. 

Local ‘benefactor’, Hugh Eaves, had assisted by providing funds to the club and updating Gigg Lane. Ternent departed to take the Burnley manager's job, with Neil Warnock taking over in June 1988, with Bury going down to the third level in his only full season before he moved on to Sheffield United. 

Andy Preece took over, initially as player-manager, as the club’s financial situation deteriorated. The newly formed supporters-owned club, FC United of Manchester, became tenants as Bury charged a very lucrative rent to ease the problem after Swinton RLFC had previously groundshared at Gigg Lane.

In 2001-02, Bury went back down to Division Three, before missing out in the playoffs of 2002-03 to AFC Bournemouth in the semi-final. Preece was replaced by Graham Barrow in December 2003, who lasted until the arrival of Chris Casper in September 2005. Bury were defeated in the 2008-09 playoff semi-final by Shrewsbury Town. 

Casper lasted a couple of years before a short spell from Chris Brass ended when Alan Knill arrived at the club in February 2008. The club had gone through more than one scare with relegation to the Conference, but after they stabilised, the club pushed for promotion once again, and achieved their goal at the end of the 2010-11 season after Richie Barker had taken over from Knill.

The club came briefly to national attention in June 2012, when it was rumoured Rangers FC were looking at buying the Shakers so that they could join the English league system, but this was quickly denied. Kevin Blackwell was installed as manager in September 2012 with the task of moving the playing side forward. 

Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect as the team was relegated in April 2013 after a period when the club was hit with a transfer embargo because of their financial situation. Stewart Day arrived as the new owner of the club, investing substantial sums. Blackwell was dismissed following a poor start in the basement division. 

Ronnie Jepson took over the reins on an interim basis. With the team in a perilous position, he was sacked in December 2013, with David Flitcroft taking over in charge of the team. Flitcroft led the side to a mid-table finish. The 2014-15 season saw the Shakers finish in third place and win promotion back to the third tier as Day sold off and mortgaged part of the land and facilities belonging to the club with his company heavily involved.

Flitcroft was sacked in November 2016 to be replaced by Chris Brass, who only lasted until February 2017 before the appointment of Lee Clark. The team avoided relegation, but Clark was dismissed in the early stages of the 2017-18 campaign. Former favourite Chris Lucketti came in but only lasted a few months at the helm. 

Ryan Lowe, another former player, was given the job as full-time player-manager after a previous stint in a caretaker capacity. Day’s company hit severe financial trouble, so he sold the club to ‘businessman’ Steve Dale in December 2018. HM Revenue and Customs were involved in a court case against the club until an outstanding debt was paid. 

Players went without their wages for several months. Financial problems resurfaced in April 2019. Former manager Brass issued a winding-up petition against the club as a creditor. Dale claimed that the financial problems were far worse than he had understood when purchasing the club.

On the pitch, Lowe’s side went on to clinch promotion, a remarkable achievement under the circumstances. A Company Voluntary Arrangement was set up in July 2019 which meant that Bury would begin the 2019-20 season with a twelve point deficit. Lowe departed with several players to join Plymouth Argyle. 

Truro City manager Paul Wilkinson was appointed as the new boss. The EFL required guarantees of finances, which weren’t forthcoming, while admitting that they hadn’t scrutinised Dale’s credentials at the time he bought the club. Opening matches were postponed with the club being given deadlines or risk expulsion from the competition. 

Dale was reported to have agreed a sale to analytics company C&N Sporting Risk on 23rd August. An hour before the deadline on Tuesday, 27th August, C&N pulled out of the deal, saying it was unable to proceed having uncovered the full financial state of the club, much of it emanating from deals still connected with former owner Day.

Later the same day, the EFL withdrew Bury’s membership. The Insolvency Practitioners Association was to investigate the agreed CVA after discovering anomalies that could have benefited a newly formed company involving Dale. The EFL was to consult with member clubs regarding Bury’s membership after an appeal from Bury North MP James Frith.  

Greater Manchester Police were to investigate a fraud allegation with regards to the finances at the club. This prompted a group of supporters to set up a phoenix club, Bury AFC. They became members of the North West Counties Football League for the 2020-21 season, playing home games at Station Park, Radcliffe. 

However, that season was abandoned owing to the pandemic. In 2021-22, the team won the Division One North title. The 2022-23 season ended in a fourth-place finish. Meanwhile, another fan group managed to buy Gigg Lane from the administrator and also announced that they had purchased the history, memorabilia and trading name of Bury FC.

There was bad blood and bitter ill feelings between the two groups, which required resolving. One had a stadium, the other a team. A vote failed to pass, to merge the two bodies. A second in May 2023 was passed, meaning that Bury AFC amalgamated with Bury FC taking their place in the Premier Division of the NWCFL at Gigg Lane.

Issues surrounding fans' behaviour caused the club problems in the 2023-24 campaign, while tensions continued behind the scenes between some parties. The team lost in the final of the playoffs to Wythenshawe Town after earlier defeating Charnock Richard. They put things right in 2024-25, winning their league title and promotion to Division One West of the Northern Premier League.

Bury FC will play in the Northern Premier League Division One West in the 2025-26 season.

My visits

Bury 3 Cardiff City 0 (Tuesday 8 April 1986) Division Three (att: 1,720)

My first time at Gigg Lane was to keep my City supporting mate, Gary Griffiths, company and to get a new ground in. This relegation battle was played out in pouring rain. The result would eventually see The Shakers stay up at the expense of the Bluebirds. Gigg Lane oozed character as a ground. 

We were in the Cemetery End, which was a central covered terrace, divided in case a large crowd required extra space for the home fans. To the right was the Main Stand. It had a decent-sized seating deck with a disused terraced paddock running along the front of it. It was now cluttered with new buildings. 

The away fans' section of seats was surrounded by ugly high fences. The Manchester Road End was a large old covered terrace set a few yards back from the pitchside fence. The final side consisted of the South Stand, which was a low seated stand behind a similar sized open terracing.

The Cardiff fans were pretty despondent with good reason. Their team was poor as they were brushed aside with ease. Luckily, it didn't affect me too much, and I was cheered immensely by a brief pub crawl around nearby Whitefields.

Bury 0 Scarborough 2 (Saturday 29th January 1994) Division Three (att: 3,040)

This bottom division encounter went down as one the most memorable mini bus days out for our regular throng of intrepid explorers. Bury FC is described as a nice relaxed day out by the very vast majority of fans who visit with their club. 

Not though in the case of Scarborough FC. For some reason, there were a group of Shakers fans who wanted blood. I have no idea how it started but over the years things degenerated. 

There was the time a Boro home game against Bury was postponed at 2.45 because of a waterlogged pitch.

This led to some visiting fans deciding the best course of action was to come and look for a fight in our clubhouse. On another occasion, Bury had serial offender Gary Brabbin in their team. A player who was sent off at Scarborough three times for different clubs! He was given his marching orders once again, inflaming things on the pitch. 

Things worsened when a Boro player kicked the ball out for a visitor to receive attention to an injury, only for the Shakers to keep the ball from the throw and go through to score. Anyway, we certainly didn't hold any animosity or any bad feelings to begin with, apart from being just a tad tetchy with the dubious goal as Boro were in a perilous league position at the time!

I'd stopped the bus at Whitefields for lunch and to collect fares, and all was fine. We were early as we parked up on the road behind the Main Stand, and the majority of us went for a jaunt. All was fine as we imbibed in a pub with a central bar. Slowly, several young men came in and got closer on either side. I don't think they wanted to play dominoes. 

I was aware of what the likely outcome may have been, so I advised the lads to stay cool, keep watching the racing on the TV, and to "sup up". At this point, the legend that is Bunner asked me which horse was mine? I was now getting nervous and told him to "sup up." He didn't hear me and asked what I'd said. I repeated my message. 

The next thing, Bunner started screaming at the TV. "Go on Sup Up, go on." He actually thought that was the name of my horse. We walked out of the pub unscathed as the home fans stood gobsmacked, obviously thinking they were in the presence of imbeciles. We got to the ground where Bury had kindly put the admission charge sky high unless you had a season ticket for Boro. 

We were also forced to sit. The ground had hardly changed, apart from the South Stand seats were out of commission. By now, we were "in ale". I had an old-fashioned football rattle, which I used to rally the troops. Boro were slowly recovering from a poor position while playing some lovely stuff under Steve Wicks. 

Bury were a decent side chasing a playoff place, but Boro absorbed pressure before winning with goals from Adie Meyer and Craig Whittington. This led to a wonderful celebration as I ran up and down the aisles sounding my rattle, while being chased by the stewards. they must have been slow as they gave up. Well, we were at the home of the Shakers!

Our friends were awaiting us in the car park. We started walking quicker towards the bus when a Bury "fan" shouted "there's the fat ba****d" At least five members of our party thought they were about to receive a good hiding! We escaped unscathed with the bus taking a few kicks up the rear end, while we sang all the way home.

Bury 0 Scarborough 2 (Saturday 21th October 1995) Division Three (att: 2,580)

Common sense prevailed as a few of the lads travelled on the supporters coach, partly as there was no-one prepared to run the buses by this time, to ensure our safety and to guarantee a couple of pre-match beers in the calm surroundings of the Bury Supporters Club.
Boro were pretty good, but Bury were pretty awful.

This explains how Don Page managed to find the net! Indeed, the Shakers were so bad that I felt fairly sorry for them. They looked destined for a relegation battle. Just to show what a strange game football is, Boro eventually finished second from bottom, and Bury won promotion!

By then Gigg Lane had changed as the new South Stand had been built, which was a single tier of seats. The Manchester Road End had been converted to seats, while the Cemetery End remained closed.

Wednesday 21st July 2010

I was in Greater Manchester on the final day of three, visiting grounds and generally enjoying all that the area had to offer. I had been for a ride on the East Lancashire Railway up to the charming town of Ramsbottom before refuelling in the excellent Bolton Street station buffet. I walked through the market town centre of Bury and down the hill towards Gigg Lane. 

I was so pleased to see an open gate at the Cemetery End, so I wandered inside. This end had now been rebuilt, with it going around the corner to join up with the South Stand. I was taking my photos when two men walked around carrying air rifles. After some of my previous adventures around the ground I feared the worse! 

As it turned out, they were friendly groundsmen who were trying to solve the stadium's pigeon problem. They cheered me up no end by telling me how Bury had torn a full-strength Leeds side apart the previous evening. I had them roaring with laughter as I told them the legendary sup-up story. I left Gigg Lane with a far nicer impression than previously. I went down to Manchester Road and eventually caught a bus back into the metropolis.