Bury F.C.

Bury F.C.

Full name	Bury Football Club
Nickname(s)	'The Shakers'
Ground	Gigg Lane Stadium Bury Greater Manchester England (Capacity: 11,840)
Chairman	Brian Fenton
Manager	Richie Barker
League	League One
2010–11	League Two, 2nd (promoted)
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Bury Football Club is an association football team based in Bury, Greater Manchester. The team play in League One. The club's nickname is The Shakers which was bestowed upon them by club chairman JT Ingham, who was an industrialist and ironmonger of the late 1890s.

History

Formation of the club and the early years (1885–1906)

The club was formed in 1885by Aiden Arrowsmith following a meeting at the White Horse Hotel, between the Bury Wesleyans and Bury Unitarians Football Clubs. Gigg Lane's first ever game took place on 12 September 1885 when Bury played a friendly match against Wigan, and won 4–3.

In 1887 the first shed was built at Gigg Lane at a cost of £50 (although this debt was written off and never paid for), also in the same year Bury recorded their record defeat, 0–10 v. Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup's 1st Round.

Bury's first ever floodlit game took place on 5 November 1889, when a crowd of 7,000 saw Bury defeated 4–5 by Heywood Central. In 1892 Bury were Lancashire Challenge Cup Winners, before joining the Football League Second Division in 1894, which they won at the first attempt, being undefeated at home all year, and beating Liverpool in a play-off at Stoke, to go up to the First Division. They stayed there until 1912. Bury's membership of the Football League from 1894 is now the 3rd longest ongoing run (after founders Preston North End and Notts County).

On 21 April, 1900 they beat Southampton 4–0 in the FA Cup Final at Crystal Palace, and returned to the London venue in 1903. The second win was achieved without conceding a goal in the entire competition, including a record FA Cup Final score of 6–0 over Derby County on 18 April, which remains the highest ever victory in an FA Cup Final.

The Bury team pictured in 1892

In 1906 the South Stand was built at Gigg Lane. And by 1922, the ground was finally handed over to the club from the Earl of Derby as a gift. In 1924 the Main Stand was built, during this period Bury's ground was one of the best in the Football League.

Building strong foundations (1907–2001)

In 1923 they were promoted again, and in 1926 they achieved their highest League position ever, fourth in the First Division. But two years later they were relegated and have so far not played top flight football again. Steady decline followed and by 1971, they had reached the Fourth Division for the first time.

The Hugh Eaves years (1985–2003)

The club's greatest benefactor was Hugh Eaves, a local benefactor under the stewardship of whom Bury were promoted to the second tier of English football following back to back promotions.

In 1998-1999, Bury were relegated from the second tier on goals scored, the only team to have ever done so.

Bury, along with long-fallen former First Division regulars Huddersfield Town and Grimsby Town pushed to remain at that level, only to see their plans being derailed by the financial crisis caused by the collapse of ITV Digital. In 2001–02, the club was relegated to League Two following a spell in administration for financial irregularities.

In May 2005, Bury became the first football club to score a thousand goals in each of the top four tiers of the English football league.

In 2006, Bury became the first team to ever be thrown out of the FA Cup after fielding an ineligible player.

After the FA Cup debacle, Bury failed to win in 16 games, and relegation to the Conference beckoned for the first time in the club's history. They survived the relegation battle of the 2006/07 season, where a 0–0 draw with Stockport County ensured they would stay up to play another season in League Two.

It was announced on 14 January 2008 that Casper and Alexander had been sacked, the board terminating the pair's contracts simultaneously. A club statement said the pair had "lost the confidence of a large majority of the fans". Chris Brass, formerly the manager of the club's Centre of Excellence, was given the vacant manager's post on a caretaker basis. His first match in charge resulted in a cup upset, the Shakers knocking Norwich City out of the FA Cup in the third round. Despite this early success, results remained inconsistent, and a more full time solution was sought by the board after Brass led Bury to a humiliating 5–1 home defeat to MK Dons.

The Alan Knill Era

On 4 February 2008, Bury appointed Alan Knill as manager. A former player with over 140 appearances, he went to coach the side from second-to-bottom up to 13th position during the 2007–08 season.

In his first full season in charge, Knill led Bury to 4th place, missing out on automatic promotion by a single goal. In the play-offs, Bury won the first leg against Shrewsbury 1–0. During the second leg, Bury missed a penalty and Shrewsbury scored with only two minutes of normal time remaining. Bury ultimately lost 5–3 on penalties, leaving them in the fourth tier.

In mid-2009, they won the pre-season 'Newsquest Cup' by beating FC United of Manchester from the Northern Premier League (2–0) and Radcliffe Borough from the North West Counties League (2–1).

In Knill's second full season in charge (2009–10), promotion seemed like a real possibility with Bury near the top of the article in February, but a poor run of form late on in the season meant they would have to settle for 9th position.

On 31 March 2011, Knill and Assistant Manager Chris Brass left the club to take over at struggling Championship side, Scunthorpe United. The next day, Youth Team Manager Richie Barker was announced as caretaker manager.

Promotion

After Richie Barker took over as caretaker manager on 1 April 2011, he guided the side to promotion to League One with a stunning run of six consecutive wins, culminating in a thrilling 3–2 victory in which Ryan Lowe scored the 87th minute winner to send the Shakers ((Bury FC)) up at league leaders and ultimate champions Chesterfield. This saw the club return to the third tier of English football for the first time since 2002. Barker was subsequently appointed as the club's permanent manager.

League Participations

First Tier: 1895–1912, 1924–29

Second Tier: 1894–95, 1912-24 (Except break due to World War I between 1915–19), 1929–57 (Except break due to World War II between 1939–46), 1961–67, 1997–99

Third Tier: 1957–61, 1967–71, 1974–80, 1985–92, 1996–97, 1999–2002, 2011–present

Fourth Tier: 1971–74, 1980–85, 1992–96, 2002–11

Honours

Championships

• Football League Second Division/Football League First Division/Football League Championship: 1895
• Football League Third Division/Second Division/Football League One: 1961, 1997

Cup wins

• FA Cup 1900, 1903
• Lancashire Cup 1892, 1899, 1903, 1906, 1926, 1958, 1983, 1987
• Lancashire Junior Cup 1890
• Manchester Cup 1894, 1896, 1897, 1900, 1903, 1905, 1925, 1935, 1951, 1952, 1968

Minor wins

• Newsquest Cup 2009

Records

• Record League victory: 8–0 v Tranmere Rovers, 10 January 1970
• Record Cup victory: 12–1 v Stockton, FA CUP 1st rnd Replay 2 February 1897
• Record defeat: 0–10 Blackburn Rovers, FA CUP Premlim 1 October 1887, 0–10 West Ham United, FL Cup 2nd Rnd 25 October 1982
• Top goal scorer in a season: Craig Madden 35 Goals, 1981–82
• Top goal scorer overall: Craig Madden 129 Goals, 1978–86
• Most League Appearances: Norman Bullock 506 Games, 1920–35
• Record attendance: 35,000 v Bolton Wanderers FA CUP 3rd Rnd, 9 January 1960
• Most goals consecutively scored: Ryan Lowe 10 Goals in 9 Games, 2010–11

Players

Current squad

As of 22 February 2012.

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Cameron Belford 2 DF Phil Picken (Vice-captain) 3 DF Joe Skarz 4 MF Patrick Cregg 6 MF Peter Sweeney 7 MF David Worrall 8 MF Steven Schumacher (captain) 10 FW Andy Bishop 12 FW Lenell John-Lewis 13 MF Mark Carrington 15 MF Giles Coke (on loan from Sheffield Wednesday)

No. Position Player 16 DF Efe Sodje 17 DF Mark Hughes 18 DF Ashley Eastham (on loan from Blackpool) 19 FW David Amoo (on loan from Liverpool) 20 GK Ritchie Branagan 21 MF Andrai Jones 22 DF Zach Rothwell 29 MF Max Harrop 31 GK Anthony Williams FW Lateef Elford-Alliyu (on loan from West Bromwich Albion)

Out on Loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 5 DF Ben Futcher (at Macclesfield Town) 11 MF Andy Haworth (at Bradford City) 24 MF Danny Hudson (at Mossley)

No. Position Player 26 MF Luke McCarthy (at Grimsby Town) 25 FW Shaun Harrad (at Rotherham)

Coaching staff

• Richard Barker Manager
• Peter Shirtliff Assistant manager
• Anthony Williams Goalkeeping Coach
• Efe Sodje Coach
• Alan Moore (footballer) Youth coach
• Tommy Walsh Physio

Rivalries

Bury's biggest local rivals are Bolton Wanderers and Rochdale F.C.. They also have other traditional, albeit friendlier, rivalries against Oldham Athletic, Burnley, Preston North End, Stockport County and Accrington Stanley.

Past managers

• T Hargreaves 1887
• H S Hamer 1887–1907
• Archie Montgomery 1907–1915
• William Cameron 1919–1923
• James Hunter 1923–1927
• Percy Smith 1927–1930
• Arthur Paine 1930–1934
• Norman Bullock 1934–1938
• Charlie Dean 1938–1944
• Jimmy Porter 1944–1945
• Norman Bullock 1945–1949
• John McNeill 1950–1953
• Dave Russell 1953–1961
• Bob Stokoe 1961–1965
• Bert Head 1965–1966
• Les Shannon 1966–1969
• Jack Marshall 1969
• Les Hart 1970
• Tommy McAnearney 1970–1972
• Allan Brown 1972–1973
• Bobby Smith 1973–1977
• Bob Stokoe 1977–1978
• David Hatton 1978–1979
• Dave Connor 1979–1980
• Jim Iley 1980–1984
• Martin Dobson 1984–1989
• Sam Ellis 1989–1990
• Mike Walsh 1990–1995
• Stan Ternent 1995–1998
• Neil Warnock 1998–1999
• Steve Redmond 1999–2000
• Andy Preece 2000–2003
• Graham Barrow 2003–2005
• Chris Casper 2005–2008
• Chris Brass 2008 (Caretaker)
• Alan Knill 2008–2011
• Richard Barker 2011–present

External links

• Official Site
• Youth and Centre of Excellence official site