Bury Website

[Shaker63]

http://tinyurl.com/ekcc2

[KIPAX]

Nearl brought a tear to my eye that.... nearly.... GO READ EVERYONE!


I was at bury last night to see FCUoM get promoted.. pics on my website...

[JEFF]

Lutel James played for Bury in the survival game

[entwisi]

need registration?

Can't someone copy it here? I've enough logins around the net thanks

[Chester Red]

Should Accrington Stanley win their game at Woking on Saturday, the 'club that refused to die' will be back in League Football Next Season.

During the dark days of administration at Gigg Lane, many clubs offered support and help by holding bucket collections for the Shakers. Manchester Untied allowed Bury supporters to collect at their Champions League game with Bayern Munich, Preston, Port Vale, Blackburn and many other clubs granted permission to conduct similar events.

One club though held a benefit game for the Shakers, a game that raised their own profile and raised vital revenue for the Shakers fight to stay in existence. It wasn't a big club, they weren't even a league club. Accrington Stanley played Bury on a freezing cold January night. If that game had been a league game, it would have never started, yet Accrington wanted the game to go ahead.

The result of the game doesn't matter, what Accrington did that cold night was cement an already strong relationship between the two clubs. It was a gesture that must never be forgotten.

For such a club as Accrington to hold a benefit game for Bury, must rank as one of the greatest things in football. There own problems have been well documented when it comes down to all things financial.

Stanley's League days came to a bitter end in as mounting debts led to their expulsion from the old Fourth Division. The club owed just over £40,000 to unsecured creditors, along with smaller sums to the Inland Revenue, the ministry of pensions and other clubs.

With no rescue package in place, the club rapidly went under and had their final season's records expunged.

Stanley's demise ended a tradition of League football in the town dating right back to the formation of the Football League in 1888, when Th' Owd Reds (Accrington FC) were founder members.

They played for five years in the League before later disbanding, during which time Stanley Villa, shortly to become Accrington Stanley, had formed in 1891.

Stanley played initially in the Lancashire Combination League and when the new Division Three North was founded in 1921, they were among the 14 founder members.

They managed a couple of second-placed finishes under Scottish manager Walter Gilbraith and when Stanley finished second in 1958, they earned a place in the new national Third Division.

Sadly things went downhill from there. Gilbraith resigned, crowds dwindled, the better players were sold and the purchase of a new stand from the Aldershot Tattoo put a strain on the coffers.

In 1960, when the lowest crowd totalled just 925, Stanley were relegated to Division Four and just two years later they were finished. By December 1961, Stanley had been banned from signing players because of their mounting debts and by the following month they went to the bottom of the table.

It was mid-February before the critical state of the club became public knowledge and their fate was sealed with almost indecent haste. Burnely chairman Bob Lord offered his assistance yet within days Stanley were playing their final League fixture - a 4-0 defeat at Crewe on Friday, 2 March.

Lord had asked some of the directors to resign and following a creditors' meeting on 5 March, recommended closure of the club and a letter of resignation was sent to the League.

The decision was not popular in the town and in the hope of late salvation, club president Sir William Cocker sent a second letter asking for the resignation to be ignored. The League would not be swayed and having barred Stanley from playing the previous day accepted their resignation at a management committee meeting on 11 March.

Stanley's name disappeared in 1963 and although a club continued back in the Lancashire Combination, it was to fold three years later. In 1968 a group of supporters re-founded Accrington Stanley and relaunched the club at its current home, now called the Interlink Express Stadium.

Through a variety of leagues, Stanley climbed their way back, eventually winning the Unibond League in 2003 to join the Nationwide Conference under long-serving manager John Coleman.

And while Coleman has been the driving force on the field, Whalley has pioneered the way forward off it. Twice a manager of the club, Whalley became chairman in the mid-1990s with only one aim.

Accrington Stanley are three points away from League Football and everyone at Gigg Lane hopes that those three points come on Saturday.Once our own league survival is nailed on, then we can at last repay a small part of that gesture.

A match report from that game can be found here

Good Luck Accy Stanley, see you all at Gigg next season

[Minister Onymfo]

What a lovely sentiment, thanks you Shakers

[maccawozzagod]

nice to know that what will be a local rival is behind us. I really hope they stay up as that is a game I am really looking forward to.

Reading around their website, they are having a 'blue and white fortnight' leading up to next season. They are asking all local businesses and shops to deck their windows etc in blue and white, all shirt owners to wear them out and about, local pubs to get invovled etc. I think an idea theft for Accrington is in order................

[RossendaleRed]

What a great piece of information.

[Tin Monkey]

Reading the opening part sent a shiver down my spine. I even remember going on that game.

[Jimbo T Hornblower]

So do I and it WAS bloody cold...

Jimbo T blower