‘So proud’: Bury AFC’s promotion marks first big step on a different path

In October 2019, six weeks after Bury were expelled from the Football League, a group of supporters met in the back room of a local pub. With Gigg Lane padlocked and the club spiralling towards liquidation, discussions began over forming a team to keep football in Bury alive.

“The priority was getting players on the pitch playing again,” says Phil Young, one of the fans in attendance. Two and a half years on, Bury AFC have earned promotion in their first full season and Young is the chair of Shakers Community, the trust that underpins the new club’s fan-owned model. It has been an impressive start to a journey beset by twists and turns.

“There have been a lot of different obstacles in our way,” Young says. “We’ve had to deal with a pandemic, which hasn’t helped.” Plans for Bury AFC’s inaugural season were disrupted by the Covid-19 outbreak of early 2020, and the virus’s resurgence the following winter saw the campaign abandoned with the team second in the North West Counties League, Division One North. As Bury AFC began again last summer, optimism was in short supply despite the big crowds drawn to Stainton Park, the club’s current home in Radcliffe. “There were players who really struggled with their mental health when we returned,” says the manager, Andy Welsh. “They had lost a bit of belief – I suppose the thing in the back of their minds is: ‘What if the season gets curtailed again?’

“We’ve all worked hard to get around the lads, pick them up when they need it, and leave no stone unturned in terms of support for them – on and off the field,” adds Welsh, whose playing career took in stints at Sunderland, Stockport and Yeovil. “That makes me proud more than anything – to see us all come together and win the league