Bury FC were formed in 1885 and it wasn't long before they adopted their "Shakers" nickname. It was formed when JT Ingham, the club's owner at the time, said before a game against Everton - "We'll give 'em a shaking. In fact, we are the Shakers". That was an unusual start to their life as a football club to say the least.

1889 saw them become founder members of the Lancashire League before joining the Football League's Second Division in 1894. They won it at the first attempt, beating Liverpool in a play-off to win promotion to the First Division. It wasn't long before the two most famous games in Bury's history came to fruition. A 4-0 win over Southampton in the FA Cup final was followed three seasons later by a 6-0 win over Derby County, which still remains as the largest ever final win.

They were relegated from Division One in 1912 before returning in 1923. 1925/6 saw their highest ever League position, finishing 4^th position in Division One. Two season's later and they played their final ever season in the top flight and they went on a very steady slide through the decades, eventually getting relegated into the Fourth Division in 1971.

A very indifferent spell saw several promotions and relegations before falling into tremendous financial difficulties at the beginning of this century. It looked for a while that they would go out of business and they were unsurprisingly relegated to the fourth tier in 2002, remaining here ever since.

Bury's first season in the division was a generally successful one with Andy Preece's men reaching the Playoffs. They had been one of the most consistant teams in the division during the season and finished in seventh place. However, they faced a strong Bournemouth side and would eventually go out 3-1 on aggregate.

Preece left for Carlisle in the middle of the following season and Bury's form went out of the window for several years. However, in the 2005/6 season Bury became the first side to score 1,000 goals in each of the top four divisions. However, controversy followed just over a year later when Chris Casper, arguably the most self-important manager to grace League Two in recent seasons, admitted to the FA that the club had accidentally fielded an ineligable player. They were thrown out of the cup and replaced by Chester City, the team they had beaten in the previous round.

The club only avoided relegation on the final day of that season and it wasn't until late on that they achieve this again. 2007/8 saw Keith Alexander try to help Casper out as Director of Football. It didn't work due to Casper's apparently constant arguments with Alexander and both were sacked towards the end of the season.

Bury were comfortably away from the drop zone and Alan Knill took over and oversaw the club's survival, finishing 13^th.

DID YOU KNOW? : Last season was the first time since Bury's relegation to the fourth tier that they have finished above Lincoln?

DID YOU KNOW? : Bury have a surprising amount of famous fans for a club of that size. Famous fans include Danny Boyle, Mike Read, Mark Smith and Gemma Atkinson.

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