BURIED... AND NOW REBORN
One year since seeing the old club expelled from the Football League Bury AFC have played first match
OF ALL the ways Bury fans might have chosen to mark the anniversary of their club’s expulsion from the Football League, this was just about perfect.
Rain that lashed earlier in the day helpfully gave way to late summer sun, the bar at Daisy Hill FC ticked over nicely for just over 100 fans and five unanswered goals went in the right net.
A small step perhaps after the turmoil and heartache of watching the slow death of their beloved club with a pre-season friendly ahead of their North West Counties League Division One North campaign.
But after the traumas of the past year it was, at least, forward.
Bury AFC is the latest of an increasing number of footballing rebirths following financial decline or mismanagement. And, typically, it is a long and complex story with no obvious winners.
Yet the growing fan membership (more than 800 and rising) who have rebooted the passion with a new start-up believe that, even in tier 10 – seven levels below where the technically still-in-existence Bury FC were a year ago – this is better than nothing.
“We just wanted to bring back the feeling of enjoyment of watching some football,” says Chris Murray, chairman of the new club. “It has been a difficult time watching a club we love, if not die, then end on life support.
“It just feels good watching football again.”
Two hours earlier, 33-year-old Murray had turned up with the kit at Daisy Hill, picked up the physio “because he doesn’t drive” and lumped camera equipment through the turnstiles.
Such a hands-on approach should not mask that there is a drive and professionalism about a set-up with ambitions to secure promotion.
Player recruitment continues apace following the appointment of former Stockport, Sunderland and Yeovil winger Andy Welsh as manager.
“We have a 24-hour emergency plumber and a couple of landscape gardeners on our books, which could be handy,” said Murray. “We had 650 applications for the manager’s job. About 550 from people who had managed only on Fifa and Football Manager.
“But there were 100 genuinely decent ones though.”
A groundshare with Radcliffe FC at their Neuven Stadium is secured, at least seven sponsors are on board and there have been 1,500 shirt sales already.
The target is promotion but the elephant in the room remains Bury FC and the fact it remains a legal entity despite an application to rejoin the league at National League level having been rejected. Should they get finances straight and a foothold back in the league for the 2021-22
season, however unlikely that seems, it would present a dilemma.
Bury FC remains in administration seemingly a heartbeat from liquidation but alive. Gigg Lane still stands driving animosity between supporters of ‘Forever Bury’ and those who have decided on a fresh start.
“There has been a lot of anger, with some saying the club is not dead yet so how can we stop fighting for it,” said Simon Henson, a fan of 40 years. “You can understand some but not the nastiness.”
What seems clear is that if Bury were to get accepted back into the football structure, the town would not sustain two teams.
“As long as the current Bury owner Steve Dale had nothing to do with it perhaps there could be some sort of accommodation,” said Murray. “The Holy Grail for us is getting Gigg Lane back.”
That might seem a long way off but you have to start somewhere.