Bury 4 Emley 0

Seven years on from the financial crisis that saw the club expelled from the Football League, Bury are back at a rejuvenated Gigg Lane, playing under their original name and aiming to continue their recent rise up the pyramid as they welcome across the Pennines an Emley side that also achieved promotion to the seventh tier last season

Date SEPTEMBER 12, 2026 Words MIKE WHALLEY Photos COLIN MCPHERSON

In the Gigg Lane shop, you can buy two souvenir mugs commemorating Bury triumphs as mocked-up Ceefax pages. One marks their 1903 FA Cup success, the other their North West Counties Football League title win of 2025 . Given all that’s happened to the club in the past decade, it’s easy to see why they get equal billing.

Today’s Northern Premier League Premier Division game is the first ever meeting of Bury, formed in 1885 , and Emley, established in 1903 , and it wouldn’t be happening without their fans. For a while, both communities lost their football club. Getting it back was a fight. “I was just in tears – it was awful,” says supporter Noreen Kershaw, recalling Bury’s expulsion from the Football League in 2019 . Kershaw, an actor and director who has appeared in Brookside and Life On Mars , received many requests at the time to talk about her club’s collapse. “I kept getting rung up for radio interviews,” she says, “and I thought I’d have to stop doing them because I was worried about swearing on air.”

During the resurrection process, fans split into two factions. One set up a team but didn’t have a ground. The other bought Gigg Lane but had no team. For a while, they didn’t see eye to eye. It needed two attempts to vote through a merger, bringing regular football back to their old home in 2023 .

Gigg Lane fell into disrepair while Bury were away, but you wouldn’t know now. A steward gives a cheerful “good luck today” to the home players as they arrive. Outside reception, there’s a small, tidy memorial garden. Inside, display boards recall the notable players of the club’s Football League past.

The ground is hemmed in on three sides by housing and woodland, and on brighter days, the neighbouring trees create pleasing shadows over the pitch – which is a 3G surface now. Laid two years ago, it reduces the risk of postponements and allows the club to make money by hiring it out. Needs must.

Having started again in the tenth tier in 2020, Bury have reached the seventh with back-to-back promotions in the past two years. But last season was turbulent

Having started again in the tenth tier in 2020 , Bury have reached the seventh with back-to-back promotions in the past two years. But last season was turbulent.

Dave McNabb stepped down as manager in December to become head of football operations – a role he subsequently left – and was replaced by former Grimsby and Barrow head coach Michael Jolley. It was a huge error of judgement: Jolley had a 2009 conviction after pleading guilty to having sex with a 15-year-old girl. Supporters, staff and players opposed the appointment vociferously, and Jolley was forced out within two days. Tim Lees filled in as interim manager before Anthony Johnson, a lifelong Bury fan, arrived in February and secured promotion on the final day.

This season, Bury have lost three of their opening eight league matches, but still sit on the play-off fringes while averaging crowds above 3,000 . Johnson must watch with them today, having received a belated three-match touchline ban for an incident during his final game at his previous club Radcliffe, seven months ago.

Emley’s players arrive, with decent support to greet them. Just under 100 away fans are here, representing a village with a population of less than 1,500 . In a corner of the main stand, they make themselves heard. One supporter holds aloft a banner depicting the major local landmark, the Emley Moor transmission mast. “Bigger than the Eiffel Tower” it declares. One for pub quizzers to debate: the Eiffel Tower is slightly taller these days, but only if you include its broadcast antenna.

Like the mast, rebuilt after collapsing in 1969 , the football club are on their second incarnation. As one fan puts it: “We’re the northern AFC Wimbledon.” When the original Emley lost an FA Cup third-round tie narrowly to West Ham in 1998 , they were a sixth-tier club with National League ambitions. But in 2000 , their glorious Welfare Ground home – three-sided because it overlaps with a neighbouring cricket field – was about to fall foul of stadium grading rules. Emley’s board, against supporter wishes, pushed through a move nine miles across West Yorkshire to share with rugby league club Wakefield Trinity.

Over the next six years, Emley became Wakefield & Emley, then Wakefield-Emley, then just Wakefield. In the meantime, a group of supporters set up a new Emley club back at the Welfare Ground. As Wakefield ran into difficulties and folded, Emley rose through the pyramid. Last season, they won promotion via the play-offs. There’s a link to the past on the coaching staff – assistant manager Steve Nicholson played in the West Ham cup tie, and still looks fit enough to be in the team.

Chairman Marcus Pound has spoken of aiming for the National League North eventually, but this season is likely to be one of seventh-tier consolidation. They do at least have well-connected backing. Emley president Andy Hobson used to work for Alan Shearer’s agent, which gave him a bit part in the evolution of the British transfer record: in 1996 , his then-home in nearby Mirfield staged the meeting at which Kevin Keegan persuaded Shearer to sign for Newcastle.

The Gigg Lane bar, with its windows overlooking the pitch, fills up as a volunteer sells raffle tickets. Fans chat and drink beer from plastic glasses, others take their pints to their seats – which you can, this far down the pyramid. At pitchside, an under-11s team stand still just long enough to pose for a photo before descending into play-fighting. Peeler the giant cartoon police dog – a nod to Bury-born Sir Robert Peel, and so surely the only current club mascot named after a former prime minister – decides against intervening.

The players emerge, and there’s a chance for last-minute refreshment: fans crowd at a kiosk at the end of the South Stand in the shadow of the neighbouring wood. Emley’s players grab water bottles thrown to them by Nicholson.

And the visitors start promisingly. Diego de Girolamo, an Italy youth international before a serious knee injury ended his top-level ambitions, angles a 30-yard pass towards Joe Stacey. His low cross runs loose for Harry Sheppeard, but the defender lifts his shot over the bar.

Bury’s attack looks well balanced. Mo Touray has the thankless task of absorbing physical punishment from Emley’s centre-backs – but as he wrestles, and gets wrestled, his forward partner Tom Carr uses his pace to exploit the gaps. Carr thinks he has a penalty when he races clear and collides with goalkeeper Ben Bottomley. The home fans cheer as the referee points, then howl on realising he has given a goal-kick.

Emley, though, continue to create. De Girolamo wins a free-kick out of Bobby Carroll, as a Bury fan shouts: “Behave ref!” It’s worked short to full-back Ellis Farrar, keen to get forward, as is captain and centre-back Jack Cowgill, meeting the cross to guide a header just too high. Home supporters mutter nervously. But Bury find their rhythm. Owen Robinson, playing in a deep attacking role, times a run on to Touray’s pass, and Bottomley spreads himself Peter Schmeichel-style to divert the attempted lob wide.

Then, an extraordinary flurry: Carr is again too quick for Emley’s defenders, and crosses low for a stretching Robinson, who first turns the ball against the post, then hits Bottomley with the follow-up, before squaring for Touray to smash against the crossbar from six yards. Moments later, Robinson goes through one-on-one again, and Bottomley makes another block. Emley’s back four is stretched. Right-back Sheppeard’s starting position is around ten yards in from touch, but Bury’s left-wing-back Connor Pye is playing tight to the line, giving him space to cross. With 25 minutes gone, Pye takes advantage, delivering from the left for Robinson to stoop and score the opening goal with a header.

In their past two home games, Bury have run amok once in front: they scored four in 19 minutes on the way to beating Ilkeston 7-0 in the league two weeks previously, and six in 15 minutes as they thrashed Wythenshawe 8-0 in the FA Cup

In their past two home games, Bury have run amok once in front: they scored four in 19 minutes on the way to beating Ilkeston 7-0 in the league two weeks previously, and six in 15 minutes as they thrashed Wythenshawe 8-0 in the FA Cup first round qualifying. It’s soon 2-0 here. Carr, after a couple of unrewarded sprints, times his burst to cushion in another Pye cross.

Leo Graham, an energetic former Wigan youth midfielder, should make it three almost immediately, but steers over when played through by Robinson. Emley look dizzy. A jinking Robinson is tripped on the edge of the box and 22-year-old Kai Evans, once on Wrexham’s books, is over immediately to claim free-kick-taking duties. He guides the ball over the wall and into the top corner. Three goals in nine minutes. Game over.

It could get embarrassing before half time, but it doesn’t. The speedy Carr hobbles off with a quad muscle problem. Emley, meanwhile, keep pushing. Centre-back Charlie Barks drives a chance into the side netting, and Stacey almost rolls one past a scrambling keeper as Bury switch off at a corner.

The away support appreciate the effort and make a huge din as the second half starts. Sadly for them, it’s soon 4-0 . Evans, socks rolled down, darts in from the right, exchanges passes with Robinson, twists one way and then the other, before drilling a shot between Bottomley and the near post.

Anthony Dudley, who started his career at Bury when they were a Football League club, is on for the injured Carr as the home side seek more goals, but nothing comes off for him. Denied at close range by Bottomley shortly before Bury’s fourth goal, he later heads over a good chance, then meets a cross with what looks a perfect glancing header, which hits the inside of the post. Finally, he sees the goalkeeper tip over his fierce drive. But the test of any centre-forward is to keep going when it’s not your day. Emley’s Gabriel Johnson, who had a brief spell at Bury last season, has struggled to make an impact, yet never flags. A striker who likes dropping deep to receive possession in the Harry Kane style, he gets one late chance, forcing his way down the left, but goalkeeper Mitch Allen knocks away his shot.

Johnson didn’t have the best time at Bury, scoring once in 15 games before joining Emley last November to be nearer to his Sheffield home and his young family. But he’s kept friends here: at the final whistle today, he has a long chat on the pitch with his old team-mate Evans, which ends with their arms around each other’s shoulders. A group of Bury players, led by defender Bailey Sloane, jog over to the main stand to pose for selfies with young supporters.

“The thing is, we didn’t play badly,” says an Emley fan. They were just overwhelmed by opponents built for bigger things, hoping to be a Football League club again one day. It’s a long way back. But if Bury ever get there, it’ll warrant a new Ceefax mug.