Bury F.C.
Bury Football Club is an English association football club based in Bury, Greater Manchester. It currently competes in the West Division of the Northern Premier League, the eighth tier of the English football pyramid, following a 2023 merger with phoenix club Bury AFC. Before expulsion from the English Football League in August 2019, Bury FC had played in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football pyramid, in the 2018–19 season.
The team are known as The Shakers and play in white shirts and navy blue shorts. Gigg Lane has been the club's home since 1885. The club has long-standing rivalries with Bolton Wanderers, Oldham Athletic and Rochdale. Established in 1885, Bury was a founder member of the Lancashire League in 1889 and champions in 1890–91 and 1891–92, before being elected to the Football League in 1894. Bury won the Second Division in 1894–95 and promotion to the First Division in which they played for 17 seasons. They won the FA Cup in 1900 with a 4–0 victory over Southampton and again in 1903 with a record 6–0 win over Derby County. Bury were relegated to the Second Division at the end of the 1911–12 season and were there for twelve years until securing promotion as runners-up in 1923–24. They were relegated in 1928–29, their last top-flight season. In 1956–57, they dropped into the third tier for the first time but won promotion as champions of the Third Division under Dave Russell in 1960–61. From 1967 to 1971, they had one promotion and three relegations, the last of which was from the Third to the Fourth Division.
Bury won promotion at the end of the 1973–74 campaign and remained in the Third Division until 1979–80. Under manager Martin Dobson, Bury won promotion back to Division Three in 1984–85. In 1990 and 1991, the club qualified for the Third Division playoffs, but were then relegated in 1992. In 1995, Stan Ternent became team manager, leading the team back to the second tier for the first time in 28 years after securing two consecutive promotions in 1995–96 and 1996–97. The club stayed there for just two seasons before being relegated twice in four seasons. They secured promotion out of League Two in 2010–11. After that, Bury switched between Leagues One and Two, being twice relegated and twice promoted. Bury finished the 2018–19 season as runners-up in League Two, earning promotion to League One for the 2019–20 season. However, the club was unable to begin the season because of longstanding financial difficulties, and was expelled from the Football League on 27 August 2019.
In November 2020, the club was placed into administration. In February 2022, Bury fans' group Est.1885 completed the purchase of Gigg Lane from the administrator and announced that they had acquired the trading name, history and memorabilia of Bury FC. After the sale was completed, efforts began to bring professional football back to Bury. In October 2022, supporters were urged to vote in a poll regarding a potential amalgamation of the Bury Football Club Supporters' Society and the Shakers Community Society. The proposals initially failed to reach the required 66% threshold from both societies, but, on 5 May 2023, the merger of both societies was approved following a second poll. Bury AFC adopted the Bury FC playing name ahead of the 2023–24 season and returned to Gigg Lane, following the Football Association's approval on 5 June 2023. Upon merging, the two team's histories were combined—retroactively counting Bury AFC's seasons as seasons for Bury FC.
History
Formation and early years: 1885–1895
Bury Football Club was founded on 24 April 1885 after Aiden Arrowsmith, a local enthusiast, had brokered two meetings between church teams Bury Wesleyans and Bury Unitarians at the Waggon & Horses Hotel and the Old White Horse Hotel. It was agreed from the outset that the team should be professional. The FA had recently legitimised professionalism but it was still a controversial topic. Ahead of the 1885–86 season, the club leased a plot of land on Gigg Lane from the Earl of Derby's estate. On 12 September 1885, the first match played there was a friendly against a team from Wigan and Bury won 4–3.The club first entered the FA Cup in 1887–88 and were drawn to play Blackburn Rovers away from home in the first round. They travelled to Ewood Park but scratched before the game. The two teams played a friendly match instead, which Bury lost heavily by 10–0. Some sources, including the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation, have recorded the friendly as a first-round FA Cup tie. The Football Association, however, lists the result as a walkover by Blackburn, recognising that Bury withdrew from the competition. This is confirmed by the Lancashire Evening Post's evening edition of the same day, which reported that "Bury scratched before the match, and played an ordinary game". Bury FC do not include the tie in their complete FA Cup record.
Bury were founder members of the Lancashire League in 1889, finishing as runners-up in the inaugural 1889–90 competition. They won the championship the next two seasons. In 1891–92, Bury were Lancashire Cup winners for the first time, and they have won this competition a total of eleven times, most recently in 2017–18. The club's nickname—"The Shakers"—was first used at the 1892 Lancashire Cup final against Blackburn Rovers. Before the match, J. T. Ingham, the club's chairman manager, reportedly inspired the players by saying: "We shall shake 'em! In fact, we are the Shakers". His words were popularised by the media and the club subsequently adopted the term as their official nickname. Also in 1891–92, Bury contested an FA Cup tie for the first time when they defeated Witton and Heywood Central before losing to Blackpool after a replay in the third qualifying round.
In 1894, the club was elected to the Football League. In their first season, 1894–95, they won the Second Division title by a nine-point margin and beat Liverpool, the First Division's bottom club, in the test match to gain promotion.
Top-flight status and FA Cup victories: 1895–1929
Bury retained their top-flight status for seventeen seasons until they were relegated to the Second Division after the 1911–12 season. In 1900 and 1903, Bury won the FA Cup, scoring ten goals in the two finals without conceding any.In the 1900 final, they beat Southern League team Southampton 4–0. Bury's run to the final was remarkable in that they were drawn away from home in every round but won through with victories over Burnley, Notts County, cup holders Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest. The semi-final against Forest was played at Stoke and ended 1–1 after Bury missed a penalty. A replay was held at Bramall Lane in Sheffield and Bury began disastrously by conceding two goals in the first two minutes. Charlie Sagar pulled one back after 55 minutes and then Jasper McLuckie equalised with only five minutes to go. Extra time was played and Sagar scored the winner after 110 minutes of play. The final at the old Crystal Palace ground was played in a heatwave and Bury, captained by Jack Pray, dominated from the start. The goals in a one-sided match were scored by McLuckie, Willie Wood and Jack Plant. The players were on a win bonus of £10 each in the final, ten times more than their usual £1 per match bonus.
Three years later, Bury did not concede a goal in any round. En route to the final against Derby County, Bury defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sheffield United, Notts County and Aston Villa. As in 1900, the final was played at the old Crystal Palace ground in south London. A crowd of 63,102 attended. As the two teams wore identical kits, agreement on colours for the day was necessary and they both changed with Bury wearing Cambridge blue shirts and navy shorts while Derby chose red shirts and black shorts.
Six of Bury's 1900 finalists were in the 1903 team, led by skipper George Ross who scored the opening goal after 20 minutes. Derby's keeper Jack Fryer played despite an existing injury which he aggravated early in the second half when he was trying to prevent Charlie Sagar from scoring Bury's second goal. As a result, Fryer was forced to leave the field and, as substitutes were not allowed then, one of the full-backs deputised in goal and their team was down to ten men for most of the last forty minutes. Bury scored three goals in four minutes just before the hour was up and their sixth after 76 minutes. Joe Leeming scored the third and last goals. Willie Wood and Jack Plant scored the other two. The final was a no contest and Derby were lambasted by the press for their poor performance. One reporter commented that, but for being merciful, Bury should have scored twenty. Bury's 6–0 win established an FA Cup final record for the biggest winning margin. Bury remained sole holders of the record until the 2019 final in which Manchester City defeated Watford by the same score. The ball used in the 1903 final is on display at the National Football Museum.
Until 1907, the team was always managed by one or more committee members. Club secretary Harry Spencer Hamer is believed to have been in charge of the team in both the 1900 and 1903 FA Cup finals, but he was never formally appointed team manager. The first specialist team manager was goalkeeper Archie Montgomery who was appointed on 1 February 1907. He was in charge when the team were relegated in 1912 and stayed on until 30 April 1915 when he was dismissed because of the club's lack of income in wartime. The club had a windfall in 1922 when Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby, unexpectedly gifted them with the freehold of Gigg Lane. The team returned to the First Division for a five-season spell in 1924 and achieved their highest-ever league position, fourth, in 1925–26. Bury have not played in the top flight since relegation back to the Second Division in 1929.
Football in the Second and Third Division: 1929–1969
Striving to recover First Division status, Bury had four top six finishes in Division Two in the 1930s. The closest that they have ever come to a top flight return was in 1936–37 when they finished third.With first-class league and cup football suspended for the duration of World War II, regional wartime competitions were organised in which Bury took part. Like all other clubs, they often relied on guest players because of service calls. There were ten regional leagues in 1939–40 and Bury were in the North West League, finishing as champions. The team were unbeaten in a sequence of 16 matches from October to February. On 30 December 1939, they played a friendly against Stoke City which resulted in a 7–6 win for Bury.
Bury were close to relegation from the Second Division several times after the war. They finally dropped into the Third Division North for the first time in 1957. 1957–58 was that division's last season before the regional sections were amalgamated into national Third and Fourth Divisions.
Under manager Dave Russell, a young Bury team were Third Division champions in 1960–61. They spent seven of the next eight seasons back in the Second Division with a best position of eighth in 1962–63. In the 1962–63 Football League Cup, they reached the semi-final but lost 4–3 on aggregate to eventual winners Birmingham City. For three seasons from 1963, Bury's best player was the future England midfielder Colin Bell, who was team captain while still a teenager. He transferred to Manchester City in 1966 and Bury were relegated the following season. They bounced straight back as Third Division runners-up in 1968 but went down again in 1969.