A regular hard working striker turned midfielder - not fantastically bursting with talent to be honest but good lord, he probably knew every blade of grass by name after 90 minutes busting a gut for the Shakers' cause. He started off as an out and out striker, scored a good number of goals too but then was moved back into midfield by Martin Dobson and for me that's when he really shone. Best goal for Bury? Probably against Fulham at Gigg in a 3-1 win when he ran the length of the pitch before hitting a shot from 20 yards into the far corner. There was also a hat-trick at Tranmere when we came from 2-0 down to win 4-2. Smiled a lot too. Moved to Bristol City for about £130,000. Last I heard he was a postman in Stocksbridge and playing for the local team too. My all time Shakers hero.
A few of us stood with him (plus Andy Gorton and Graham Branch) on the terraces at Wigan (Springfield Park, pre Dave Whelan and the JJB) for an FA Cup match which finished 1-1. Tim was drunk and shook his hand. I was sober and was too scared to dare to shake the hand of such a legend. It was probably my first brush with a famous person of any description.
Thinking of Jamie Hoyland reminds me of better days. Before each game, the occupants of the Manny Road End would sing or chant the name of each and every player until they waved. Jamie! Jamie Hoyland! Jamie! Jamie Hoyland! A player in the Nicky Daws mould but much much better - no nonsense, plenty of effort and some goals too. Best goal has got to be the second in a 2-0 win over Bolton, one of the few times we actually beat them at home in my time watching Bury. He left for Sheffield United for £250,000 I think in the season they went up into the old old first division and scored a few including a goal against Manchester United in the BBC televised FA Cup 3rd round when the Blades won 2-1.
He lived down Nuttall Lane, we used to drive past and see if we could see him through his window. I'm sure he appreciated that.
David Lee was fast. Very fast. He also had no shortage of skill. He was our little 'pint-sized winger' who scared the shit out of left backs for years. Poor Barry 'Barrow' Cowdrill must have had nightmares about the lad for weeks prior to matches between Bury and Bolton.
There really was a ripple of excitement around the ground whenever the ball was pushed out wide to the little man. He would size up his opponent, drop a shoulder, go back and pick it up again, and then skin some poor unsuspecting full back.
Towards the end of his Bury career he was truly shit-hot. He developed a habit of cutting inside at full pelt and curling the ball towards the far top corner of the goal. He scored about fifteen goals in his last season including two incredible goals against Grimsby and a hat-trick against promotion chasing Cambridge United in one of those games you never forget.
After leaving us, he went to Southampton for £400,000 where he didn't really shine, then joined the wanky wanderers where he really excelled himself. He played for Wigan for a bit whilst they were still shit but will always be remembered by Bury fans as one of the greatest Bury players ever.
"Merci beau coup, Monsieur Houllier, for sending Jon Newby our way."
A controversial one this, but I’ve defended him before and I’ll do it again. When Jon Newby joined Bury during the 2000/01 season, we were not doing well. We hadn't scored in ages and hadn't won in even longer. Jon Newby came straight in to the side on loan from Liverpool reserves and shook things up a little. He scored our first in a home win against Peterborough and got injured in the process and became an instant hero. For the rest of that season he scored a good number of goals and when partnered with Colin Cramb (and Cramb could be arsed) we had the most inventive, fast, and lethal strike force in the division, by far (Newby was the fast bit, Cramb, the inventive one).
He gradually went off the boil but was always a threat with his pace, but then he signed for Huddersfield, where he hardly played and didn't score before returning to Bury and proving beyond all doubt that players should never re-sign for a former club. He was rubbish. He'd lost all his confidence and couldn't hit a barn door's arse with a cow's banjo or something like that.
He left Bury and drifted into non league football but then joined Sammy Macclesfield's football revolution at Morecambe and he's since moved on to play for Greenock Morton in the Scotish League.
If we're talking about highlights, then there's his last minute winner at Wrexham (1-0) but that is easily surpassed by his last minute winner at home to league leaders Milwall, the eventual champions and not beaten in about 20 games. They came to Gigg and took the lead on 4 minutes. Before half time, Colin Cramb scored possibly the most sublime goal I have ever seen and then Bury played some great football culminating in Newby's 90th minute close range strike for a dramatic winner.
Having already made reference to this man, I think its time for some detail.
Colin Cramb had had a varied career before joining Bury and was best known for his time at Crewe. A fiery Scot, his main problem was that he was lazy and liked punching people (usually team-mates) which didn't tend to endear him to the clubs he was with. On the plus side he was quite extraordinarily talented. The goal he scored against Milwall was brilliant, taking down a long pass on the edge of the area and turning towards goal in one movement then shimmying past two opposition defenders who had simply no idea what had just happened, before curling a perfect shot past the goalkeeper. He scored quite a few goals for Bury and then presumably punched someone and was released. He joined Fortuna Sittard where he did okay before he punched someone and was released.
He's currently plying his trade in the Scottish league for East Stirlingshire and is no doubt one of the main reasons for their change in fortunes this season as they have a few wins on the board and have the rare pleasure of teams below them in the league (quite a few in fact).
He was in many ways, very similar to Tony Rigby, only Rigby's superweakness was beer and pies, whilst Cramb's was, as I may have mentioned, punching people.
Lenny 'are you gonna pass the ball my way?' Johnrose was signed from Hartlepool as a right winger by Sir Stanstead Turnip of Bumley, he was pretty useless at first - a bit too much of a lightweight, but then he got some dumbells for Christmas, was moved into central midfield and the man became legend.
When we won the second division championship in 1997, he was very much a central figure in that side. The same could be said for our brief time in division one when he really excelled. Now when we went up, we knew we'd be pitting our wits against some huge clubs - Manchester City, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, West Brom and Crewe to name a few. Do you remember Emerson, Middlesbrough's Brazillian Samba dancing midfield man with his mass of curly black hair and his flamboyant skills? Well he had one very unpleasant couple of hours one cold and rainy winter's evening in Bury. Boro, clearly heading back to the Premier League after slumming it with the likes of Bury came to Gigg and Lenny Johnrose spent the entire evening no more than about eight inches from Emerson. He probably followed him back to his mansion and snuggled up in bed with him afterwards (except I don't think they have mansions in Middlesbrough). Its also a fact that Middlesbrough won that night, 1-0 with Beck the scorer but even when Emerson went to ply his trade in Italy, I bet he still had nightmares about Lenny 'the Lion' Johnrose for many years later.
Signed from York for £125,000 early in Stan Ternent's reign, he quickly established himself as a very promising keeper. He was very popular with the fans as he always tried to play to the crowd a bit - "Spin it!" for example. However, why bother fannying about spinning the ball backwards for long kicks when you can just save an 87th minute penalty at Vicarage Road to seal Bury's promotion to the first division?"
What do you mean you don't know that one? . . . oh okay then. April / May 1997, it had been a fantastic season in which, after coming up from division three the previous season, Bury had made the transition with ease. Unbeaten at home all season and conceding just 7 goals in the games at Gigg Lane, solid and dependable with the likes of Keily, Chris Lucketti, Paul Butler, Dean West, Nicky Daws, Ronnie Jepson, Lenny Johnrose, Mark Carter and David Johnson et al playing at the peak of their abilities and managed by the magnificent managerial pairing of Super Sir Stanstead Turnip of Bumley and Samantha Ellis.
We had been all the way to Luton on the Tuesday to witness a typically solid defensive 0-0 draw and that left us needing a single point from our last 2 games at Watford (chasing the playoffs) and at home to mid-table Milwall to seal promotion. So we all traipsed down to Vicarage Road and it was all going swimmingly until with 3 minutes left, lineswoman Wendy Toms, famous for being the only football league match official without a willy (apart from Kevin Lynch of course) flagged for a Gordon Armstrong foul in the Watford penalty area. We could all see it going tits up but as you've probably guessed, Super Dean Keily had other ideas, flinging himself low to his left to save Tommy Mooneys' spot kick.
It makes me go all gooey on the inside remembering the celebrations that followed. Having been a bit nervous for most of the game, we let it all go and for the last 3 minutes and a good twenty after the match had finished, the promotion party was in full swing. We even got back to the Hare and Hounds well before last orders for a bit of well-earned refreshment.
A jolly good time was had by all.
You probably know the rest too. The following Saturday we beat Milwall 2-0 to seal the second division championship in front of about 9000 bury fans and half a dozen or so Milwall fans. Oh happy days. It'd be nice to think we might see something like that again someday, eh readers?
I met him once. I used to work in the Millers Kitchen at the top of Bradshaw Road and he was a bit of a regular in there of a weekend. We'd just lost 2-0 at Blackpool in about March 1997 and i'd hot-footed it back from Bloomfield Road for my bar shift and he was in. I made some comment about the game ("bit of a disappointment today" said I. "Yeah we were poor" replied Deano). I think he just wanted me to shut up really.
This young chap was a decent midfielder for Bury a few years back, showed obvious signs of having far too much quality for the likes of Bury but that's not what this is about.
Preston North End wanted him and made a derisory offer. Bury being Bury were about to accept it until Simon himself, a local lad, told Preston that if they wanted him, they'd have to pay a fair whack. PNE upped their offer and got their man, the young Mr Whalley got his move to the championship and Bury got a nice wedge of cash to spend on a new gold plated dartboard for Chris Casper, probably.
Despite the unpleasant and unwanted connections with Manchester United, Nev Neville is Bury through and through. He used to watch the games from the Nev Neville enclosure at the front of the main stand but someone must have found him a seat now because he's not been seen there for ages.
His fundraising efforts probably kept Bury in business when we were in trouble that time and it was his idea to sell the seats which raised around £150000 (which when you consider there's 12000 seats, sold at £10 each is a quite remarkable achievement). I spoke to him once, on the opening day of the 1988/89 season when we'd played Wolves. I arrived at the ground at about ten to three and the place was deserted, I saw Nev Neville and asked if there was supposed to be a game on and he said "We played this morning, won 3-1". I felt a bit silly but then didn't miss a home game for about three years after that one.
I once heard a radio interview with him in which he was asked for his greatest memory and his reply was something like "Well I've seen my two sons lift the European Cup in Barcelona but that doesn't even come close to Dean Keily's penalty save at Watford". Top man.
Tony Ribgy was like a poor man's Paul Gasgcoigne. Highly talented, overweight and determined to piss his career up against a wall. A sad waste of talent of which we only got brief glances. Remember his free kick goal in the abandoned game at Reading? or his goal in the away win at Birmingham City? I don't because I wasn’t at either game. I was present, however, at the occasion of my second best ever football-watching moment when in the last couple of minutes of the play-off second leg against Preston, Tony Rigby was put clear by Phil Stant and hit a fantastic dipping shot over the PNE keeper to send us to Wembley and thereby began the best jostle ever in the Cemy end.
I used to work in the Roxy and one Friday night he was in there absolutely plastered on cider until about 2pm. He then played for Bury the following day (or later the same day if we're being honest).
At the time he seemed like a decent striker, who would eventually move up a division or two and when he went to Preston North End for £125,000 I personally thought it was a low-ish price but was fairly happy with it considering. However, we had a trick up our sleeve and the trick was twofold. The first part of the plan was that David Nugent himself would be brilliant at Preston and would convince the football world that he was worthy of the premiership, and secondly we would receive 20% of any profit that PNE made on his sale. Sunderland and Everton were interested, but it was Portsmouth who eventually paid £7,000,000 for him in what must go down as the worst signing ever in the history of football as he's clearly not Premiership quality and never was. Who cares about that though when Bury are getting a further £1,375,000 to add to his original fee? What have they done with all that money? Probably spent it on extending Chris Casper's contract, employing Keith Alexander and then paying both of their contracts off.
Taking over from that fat headed bastard Sam Allardyce, he quickly transformed the scum from the 6th or 7th best football team in England in 2006/07 to relegation certainties in 2007/08. Unfortunately he was sacked after about ten games and Gary 'Ginger Mourinho' Megson went about undoing all his good work and ultimately kept them up but they'd have been down with the Derby if our hero Sammy Lee was still at the helm. I've always liked that fat ugly little scouser.
A pretty good left back, signed from somewhere crap like York. Did very well for us but then suffered a long term injury. Having convalesced in the Gigg Lane Physio room and benefitted from a no doubt generous wage whilst not kicking a single ball, he then chose not to sign a new contract and fucked off on a Bosman to joint former boss Ternent at Burnley and to treble his wages in the process, probably. A bit like a shit Ashley Cole.
What can I say about this fat headed bastard that you don't already know. He took wanky wanderers on a good run which lasted about six seasons before following the lure of the big cash to St James' Park, Newcastle where he failed, abysmally. At the breezeblock, he turned a small, shitty club into UEFA cup contestants and people were almost beginning to respect the club before he left (not me though, I hastily add). Its true, though, that people did have respect for big fat Sam himself (again, not me) and he was even somewhat laughably tipped for the England Job when it became available (although it would have been interesting to see how much worse than McLaren he would have done). He's now at Blackburn - which must rankle with some of the scum fans a bit - and seems to be doing a decent job of it so far.
It was rumoured that he once interviewed for the Bury job before he got the job down the road. I might have been writing about him in the Heroes section if he had.
Colin. Colin Wanker. And what a wanker.
Having had successful spells in charge of Notts County (took them up to the Premier League) and Huddersfield (promotion to division one) and then been pretty average at clubs like Oldham and Plymouth, he was offered the chance to take over from Sir Stan and to keep us in the first division. His policy for achieving this was to sell players like Dean Keily, Chris Lucketti and David Johnson and replace them with the likes of Ady Littlejohn, Darren Bullock and Andy Preece on higher wages and long contracts.
Initially, it went well. Warnock came across as a decent bloke, writing a column in the Bury Times and generally being approachable and having a pleasant manner. When we played Norwich City live on Sky in October, a win would have taken us to the top of the division one. We beat some decent sides early on but then went on a run when we didn't win for a while. We were eventually relegated on the last day of the season on goals scored in what was the first and only season when goals scored took precedence over goal difference and this rule relegated us as we had a much better goal difference than Port Vale who stayed up.
We can't go round hating someone for managing us to relegation from division one. Most of the clubs in that league were bigger and richer than Bury and relegation was probably inevitable at some point, but two things upset Bury fans: firstly, he had dismantled Ternent's excellent side and built a poor side which took us down, in doing so he dramatically increased the wage bill and when the shit hit the ITV Digital fan a couple of years later, it left the club in a very precarious position. So thanks for that, Neil. Secondly, Neil Warnock, whilst manager of Bury went on Sky as a pundit and wore his Sheffield United tie. That, to me is the ultimate insult. Sure, everybody knew he was a blades fan and he could barely contain his glee when he left Bury for Sheffield United, but a person in his position needs to show some respect and loyalty to the club that pays his wages. You didn't see Sven wearing a Sweden shirt whilst managing England did you?
For years extolled as Mr Bury, who would bleed white and blue if you cut him. Well I wouldn't mind giving it a try to be honest.
When Terry 'Greengrass' Robinson got bored of his second hand desk and making his own cups of tea, he left Bury and joined the board at Sheffield United. Okay, nothing wrong with that, you might say. Well what about the 'deal' he struck with Sheffield United a month or two before he left to take Paddy Kenny on load for three months, and then if they wanted to keep him they could have him for a pre-agreed fee of £45000. FORTY FIVE GRAND? ARE YOU HAVING A FUCKING LAUGH TERRY? At the time we were confused as to why we would offer such a deal, but then it became obvious that Kenny was the sweetener to encourage Sheffield to employ big fat Terry where he would have a much bigger office, a brand new desk from Ikea's executive section and someone to brew up for him.
Chris Casper will be remembered for a number of unhappy incidents during his unsuccessful tenure as the Shakers' supremo, such as the 'Ineligible Player' Incident, the 'Forcing Quality Players Like Tom Kennedy Out Of The Club' incident, the 'Our Three Worst Ever League Positions in 120 Years' incident and the 'Being Really Shit For Ages' incident. Lets look at each of these in turn eh readers?
The Ineligible Player incident
Safely into the third round draw of the Football Association Challenge Cup for the first time in 200 years after a 3-1 away win at Chester in a second round replay, it transpired that for the last 10 minutes or so of a well won victory, one of our loanees from Hartlepool who's name escapes me wasn't eligible to play in the cup. Danny Wilson, the Hartlepool manager had given verbal permission for him to play but no-one at Bury had bothered to sort it out properly. Bury FC admitted it to the FA, and we were kicked out of the cup - the first club ever to be booted out of the world's most famous football association challenge cup in the world, they even watch first round highlights on the moon you know - and in some of the more glamorous parts of Wales. Chris Casper offered to resign which on the back of six straight wins was probably quite a safe thing to offer. His resignation was refused and the stupid useless tosser* was allowed to carry on screwing up our football club. Bitter? Moi? Yes, I am
The Forcing Quality Players Like Tom Kennedy Out Of The Club incident
I know we shouldn't read too much into rumours but I’m going to anyway because its fun. Chris Casper was known for his lack of man-management skills. He apparently had bad relationships with a number of the players and he had his 'friends' who would play despite being rubbish, a mistake Andy Preece made aswell as I found out whilst sitting next to Kemaijl Avdiu for a game once (in which Bury beat Burnley 4-2 on boxing day around 1999 ish) - he [Avdiu] was bitter aswell. Anyway, it was rumoured that Casper didn't get on with Tom Kennedy, wouldn't offer him a new contract and unsurprisingly, he left. Kennedy was a decent player (although obviously not that good as not only did he go to Rochdale, and three years later he's still there!) and personal issues should not be allowed to get in the way of building a good squad so shame on you Christopher Casper.
The Our Three Worst Ever League Positions in 120 Years incident
Since 1885, in one hundred and twenty three years of league football, our three worst league positions EVER have all been whilst Chris Casper was manager. That's quite an achievement - an achievement of utter utter shitness..
The Being Really Shit For Ages incident
See above
When we were kicked out of the FA Cup in 2006/07, we were hung up to dry by the FA, made an example of. This is despite the fact that not only did the boy in question only played for ten minutes and therefore didn't affect the outcome very much but also Bury contacted the FA and 'fessed up.
This honesty didn't impress the FA, who immediately exerted their imperious power and booted little old Bury out of the competition, "And that's what happens to clubs who break the rules! Apart from West Ham because they're more famous than you. We'll just give them a fine. Next!"
Sam 'Pizza Face' Ellis signed John 'John McGinlay' McGinlay from Shrewsbury Town for a massive £175,000 and in his only full season for us he scored about ten goals. What's so special about that? Well three of them came on 19th March 1991 at Burnden Park in a magnificent 3-1 win over wanky wanderers. I didn't even need to look that date up - it's forever ingrained in my memory, as are all three goals such as the last one when Tony Cunningham raced clear and shot past David Felgate. Felgate (true to form) missed it and the ball hit the post, ran along the goal line, hit the other post and rebounded out into the path of 'Super' John McGinlay who blasted home for his hat-trick.
Sadly, Super John was about to be renamed shitty John McGinlay.
In a nutshell, Bury ran out of money and had to sell all our players . . . to bolton, it would seem. Mark Patterson and Tony Cunningham went directly to bolton and David Lee went via Southampton. McGinlay went on loan to Milwall, they signed him permanently and then joined bolton a little while later.
He then proceeded to become the greatest ever bolton wanderers player since Nat Lofthouse and in a couple of games against Bury (of which there used to be plenty) he really turned Bury fans against him. In a league cup tie first leg, he damaged Bury keeper (and his own former colleague) Gary Kelly's knee in an appalling challenge and then in the second leg he scored and went around kissing the badge when he scored. He also scored the decisive penalty in an embarrassing and painful 3-0 shoot-out defeat. After that we didn't like him anymore.
I have a friend who used to work for Tower FM and he did quite a lot of commentaries of Bury and Bolton and John McGinlay used to co-commentate at the Reebok. Matty assures me that John McGinlay is a thoroughly decent bloke but I refuse to believe him. He’s a bastard.
Signed from Manchester United's youth team / reserves early in Stan Ternet's reign, David Johnson was electric! His pace and his goals hepled us to promotion and helped keep us in the first division for a season. He then signed for Ipswich Town for about a million pounds (minus Chris Swailes). Whilst playing for Ipswich, on their way to promotion and the Premier League, they visited Gigg and after an hour of goal-less football, David Johnson took an outrageous dive in the Bury penalty area. The ref was taken in and a spot kick was awarded. It was duly despatched and Ipswich went on to win 3-0.
I don't like cheaters, especially those who don't need to and to do so against a club which had resurrected his career from the shit house is despicable. You're a bad man David Johnson.
He eventually left Ipswich and went to Nottingham Forest from which club he has recently retired due to a persistent back injury. To be honest, over time, my dislike for Johnson has diminished and I remember him for the good times he had at Bury.