Bury

The club was formed in 1885, and took a lease on a pitch at Gigg Lane, which remains their home today. In 1889 they were founder members of the Lancashire League, before joining the Football League Second Division in 1894, which they won at the first attempt. They beat Liverpool in a play-off to clinch promotion to Division One. They stayed there until 1912.

Bury have won the FA Cup twice. On April 21, 1900 they beat Southampton 4-0 at Crystal Palace, and before returning to the London venue in 1903. The latter win was achieved without conceding a goal in the entire competition, including a record FA Cup Final score of 6-0 over Derby County on April 18. The 1903 cup also had another great acivement for bury as the 6-o scorline still remains as the highest ever win in a fa cup final wich all players recived a medal for.

In 1923 they were promoted again, and in 1926 they achieved their highest League position ever, 4th in the First Division. But two years later they were relegated and never played top flight football again. Steady decline followed and by 1971, they had reached the Fourth Division for the first time.

They are nicknamed 'The Shakers' due to first chairman, JT Ingham who, before a Lancashire Cup game with Blackburn, said "We will shake them. In fact, we are the Shakers." Local rivals include Bolton Wanderers, Oldham Athletic and Rochdale.

The Bury team pictured in 1892

Bury have produced great players over the years, including Les Hart, Dean Kiely, Terry McDermott, Alec Lindsay, Colin Bell, Neville Southall, Craig Madden, Lee Dixon and Roger Stanislaus. Perhaps Bury's most infamous player has been David Adekola, a Nigerian who came to Bury after successfully convincing football officials that he was a former Nigerian international player with top flight experience in Europe, though no records of such claims exist. Their recent history has witnessed some great success with youth development, with players such as Colin Kazim-Richards, David Nugent and Simon Whaley moving onto Premiership and Championship clubs to great acclaim.

Recently Bury became the first football club to score a thousand goals in each of the top four tiers of the English football league.

Currently they are in the 4th tier of English football, League Two. They were relegated to this level in the 2001-02 season - only ten years beforehand they were one promotion away from returning to the top flight.