MAN CITY SUNK BY SHAKERS
IN Bury, St Valentine’s Day is known by another name – Paul Butler Day.
On February 14, 1998, Butler was the Shakers’ matchwinner at Maine Road, scoring a goal that helped send Manchester City into the third tier of English football and keep Bury up.
Twenty-four years on, City are a force on the world stage – and Bury FC are finding their way back from the dead, after being booted out of the EFL with debts of £5million in August, 2019.
The club have been given the kiss of life this year after a fans group stepped in to buy the Gigg Lane ground. Fans and former players, Buttler among them, had campaigned for the club to be revived.
Bury – FA Cup winners in 1900 and 1903 – gave the former Republic of Ireland defender one of the finest moments of a career that also included a spell in the Premier League with Sunderland.
In 1997-98, Butler was playing in the second tier with the Shakers – the first time they had played at the level since 1969 – and the team he supported as a boy were on the slide.
City had finished 14th the previous season, a turbulent campaign during which Alan Ball, Steve Coppell and Frank Clark had spells in the hotseat.
The summer brought in striker Lee Bradbury, in a then Manchester City record £3million deal from Portsmouth. Star player Georgi Kinkladze had agreed to stay too. But even with them it was a struggle.
Bury held City to a 1-1 draw at Gigg Lane in September – “We murdered them” is how Shakers boss Stan Ternent remembered the match – and when the sides later met at Maine Road both were in danger of the drop.
The game’s only goal came in the 53rd minute.
Mark Patterson’s corner found its way back to him, and at the second attempt, he picked out his target.
Butler was waiting under his lofted cross at the far post and his angled header crept over the line.
“Towards the end, this guy came running over and threw his season ticket into the Manchester City dug-out,” recalled Ternent.
“He said, ‘This is ridiculous, it’s only little Bury’. I thought, ‘We’re only little Bury, but we’re turning your lot over’.”
Bury went on to escape the drop that season by winning seven of their last 16 games, while City were relegated, a 5-2 win at Stoke on the final day not enough to save them.