| It was the meeting of two
religious sects which prompted the formation of Bury FC
in 1885, when the Unitarians and the Wesleyans put aside
their differences to play football as one side. To this
day, Bury have the shortest name in the League. Success came the club's way very
quickly, because after being one of the founder members
of Division 2 in 1894, they were champions the following
season. The promotion they gained as their reward ended
with a stay in the First Division until 1912, when the
club developed quite a reputation as one of the best in
the country at the time.
The Shakers obtained their
nickname in 1891 when the chairman remarked that he
expected his team to "shake" their opponents.
However, referees got to hear of this and fearing the
worst have ensured that the club have had disciplinary
problems ever since. Many believe that the nickname
actually derived from the nerves exhibited by the Bury
players prior to their FA Cup Final of 1900, which they
ended up winning. There were no such worries when they
recorded a 6-0 victory over Derby County in the 1903
Final - a record that still stands today, nearly 100
years on.
Since these heady days, Bury
have struggled in the lower divisions, although as
recently as 1998-99, they were in the First Division.
Even staging the first ever floodlit cricket match in
Great Britain was a huge flop. The lack of success (the
Third Division championship in 1961 aside) has prompted
the club to consider drastic measures to try and
"re-glamourise" itself. One such scheme wanted
to change the name of the club t Manchester North End.
Unsurprisingly, the two segments of some of their close
rivals names did not appeal to the fans and the idea was
scrapped. Another recent development has thrown up the
idea of Bury and Rochdale merging to form a new club, but
when the FA revealed that the "new" club would
have to play in the lower division of the two
"old" clubs, the proposal was soon interred
under a welter of complaints. Many Spurs fans are hoping
that the Lancashire club would merge with their North
London rivals to become Bury-Arsenal. Yes, surely
something many would like to see.
In 1981, the club had only
scored three goals in eight league games, so they put an
inexperienced young keeper in goal for training to
encourage their forwards and in their next game they won
3-1 !! Unfortunately, they got carried away with the idea
and put the youngster in goal for the following match and
lost 7-0 !!
Although there is not too
much exotic about the club these days, tropical health
experts have been flocking to Gigg Lane after an outbreak
of Beri-Beri, but it only turned out to be the fans
breaking into song in praise of their team a la Frank Sinatra's
"New York New York".
FAMOUS PLAYERS : - Colin
Bell, Danny Wilson, Tony "Digger" Barnes,
Norman Bullock, Neville Southall, Archibald Coughing,
Bill Gorman.
FAMOUS FANS : - Mike Reid
(Classic FM DJ), Mark E Smith (Musician - The Fall)
|
