History
The club was formed in 1885, and took a lease on a pitch at Gigg Lane, which remains their home today. In 1889 they were founder members of the Lancashire League, before joining the Football League Second Division in 1894, which they won at the first attempt. They beat Liverpool in a play-off to clinch promotion to Division One. They stayed there until 1912.
Bury have won the FA Cup twice. On April 21, 1900 they beat Southampton 4-0 at Crystal Palace, and before returning to the London venue in 1903. The latter 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 April 18. The 1903 cup also had another great achivement for bury as the 6-o scoreline still remains as the highest ever win in a fa cup final which all players received a medal for.In 1923 they were promoted again, and in 1926 they achieved their highest League position ever, 4th in the First Division. But two years later they were relegated and never played top flight football again. Steady decline followed and by 1971, they had reached the Fourth Division for the first time.
They are nicknamed 'The Shakers' due to first chairman, JT Ingham who, before a Lancashire Cup game with Blackburn, said "We will shake them. In fact, we are the Shakers." Local rivals include Bolton Wanderers, Oldham Athletic and Rochdale.Bury have produced great players over the years, including Les Hart, Dean Kiely, Terry McDermott, Alec Lindsay, Colin Bell, Neville Southall, Craig Madden, Lee Dixon and Roger Stanislaus. Perhaps Bury's most infamous player has been David Adekola, a Nigerian who came to Bury after successfully convincing football officials that he was a former Nigerian international player with top flight experience in Europe, though no records of such claims exist. Their recent history has witnessed some great success with youth development, with players such as Colin Kazim-Richards, David Nugent and Simon Whaley moving onto Premiership and Championship clubs to great acclaim.Recently Bury became the first football club to score a thousand goals in each of the top four tiers of the English football league.Currently they are in the 4th tier of English football, League Two. They were relegated to this level in the 2001-02 season - only ten years beforehand they were one promotion away from returning to the top flight.In 31-year-old Chris Casper, Bury did have the League's youngest manager. In the past, they have been managed by Mike Walsh, Stan Ternent, Neil Warnock, Andy Preece, and Les Hart, who was both captain, physiotherapist and coach with 44 years service to the club. Most recently Casper has asked Martin Scott to step in as the new assistant manager due to the departure of Ian Miller to Leicester City.During the close season former Lincoln City manager Keith Alexander was appointed Director of Football.In late 2006, Bury enjoyed their best of run of form for the past decade with six consecutive league victories. They drew 2-2 away at Weymouth F.C. in the FA Cup on 12 November, 2006. This game was notable as being Bury's first ever live appearance on terrestrial TV and attracted a respectable average audience of 2 million, peaking at 2.6 million just before the end. However on December 20, 2006 they were the first team to ever be thrown out of the competition for fielding an ineligible player, thanks to Chris Casper who offered to resign.Since the FA Cup debacle, Bury failed to win in 16 games, and relegation to the Conference for the first time in the club's history became a possibility. This was successfully avoided.Their home, Gigg Lane, is also home to F.C. United of Manchester who rent the ground from Bury F.C.Bury survived the relegation battle this season, where a 0-0 draw with Stockport County ensured they will stay up to play another season in League Two.On January 14th 2008, both the manager Chris Casper and Director of Football Keith Alexander were sacked due to a run of nine games without a win. Chris Brass took over as caretaker for three weeks, after which Alan Knill became the club's 35th new manager.
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