Bury Times Sports Editor Chris Bailey looks forward to Bury in the big time at the top of the Nationwide League.

Twenty-eight years of waiting and wondering are almost over. The Shakers are back in the First Division and raring to go.

Fans and pundits alike can only speculate on what will happen in the next ten months, but what is certain is that Bury's players will give as much as most and more than many in their quest to prove themselves at a higher level.

The bookmakers rate the Shakers somewhere in the region of 33/1 to 40/1 for a second successive title. Those odds are, unfortunately, laughable.

Soccer has changed drastically since the Shakers were last in the equivalent section of the Football League. The rich have got richer and the poor have continued to live off wealthy benefactors and the largesse of bank managers.

There are the haves, the have nots and the completely skint. The Shakers belong in the third category.

Realistically, Bury are entering the new campaign without a hope in the world of competing with the elite in the division. If league tables were based on financial clout, the Shakers would already be relegated.

Manager Stan Ternent has had no room for manoeuvre in the transfer market. No money to spend has meant he has had to deal in free transfers and hope that there is enough improvement in the existing players to keep the team dangling above the trap door that leads straight back to whence his side came.

The club are so desperate to bring in money that a new commercial package offers to change the name of the stadium to fit in with corporate demands. The next few months promise to be both exciting and exacting. They could be difficult to handle for a new breed of fans raised only on success.

There is no credible argument against Bury being in the First Division on merit but, by the same token, no one should doubt that if Bury manage to stay up next season it will a major triumph. One as worthy of praise as either of the two promotions. Ternent and assistant Sam Ellis face the hardest tasks of their managerial lives and so do the players.

Looking on the positive side of things, what the Shakers lack in money they may make up for in spirit and support. As a team unit they have been fabulous for two seasons and there is plenty of improvement to come. However, a severe crop of injuries or suspensions will spell disaster for they are only carrying a senior staff of 20 professionals, two of whom are goalkeepers and one of whom, Rob Matthews, will not play until around Christmas time because of a knee operation.

It's a far cry, then, from Gigg Lane to the First Division's millionaire row where the likes of Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest are ready to lord it over their new opponents.

Boro have already signalled their intentions. Gone are the Brazilians who lit up Premiership grounds but couldn't stave off relegation or a double cup disappointment.

To replace them, boss Bryan Robson has spent more on one player - England international Paul Merson - than Bury have laid out in their entire transfer history and when you add the likes of formidable Spaniard Jose Bakero to equation it is not difficult to see the Teessiders bouncing straight back at the first attempt.

Forest, too, have been active in the transfer market. In Dave Bassett they have just the man to re-awaken dormant desires for glory and they have lashed out millions in the summer on his transfer judgement.

Sunderland, too, will be a tough nut to crack and when you add what I affectionately describe as the Midlands Mafia - Birmingham and Wolves - one begins to realise why this season's Division One has been touted as the best ever.

When teams like Manchester City, complete with their talismanic Georgian Gio Kinkladze and unbelievable support, and QPR, who have stars a plenty of their own, are not considered among the strong favourites the big picture becomes even clearer. Ipswich and Norwich are also likely to have their say and the likes of Bradford, Port Vale, Stoke City, Portsmouth, Sheffield United, Huddersfield and West Brom are so used to surviving at Division One level that you cannot see more than one, if any, of them struggling.

The division may well split into three categories with the elite, the safe, and a rump of teams left to fight out who stays and who drops.

If we are being realistic - and we must be, for it is not fair to burden a group of honest players with unreasonable expectation - Bury have to target Charlton, Oxford, Swindon, Tranmere, Reading, Crewe, and Stockport as the teams they can finish ahead of.

Ternent spent many of last season's press conferences counting down to a figure he felt would keep his men safe. He is likely to be doing the same again this time around, and it may take a little longer to reach the magic mark of around 50 points.

Having said all that, the high of the two promotions and a reasonably gentle start to the campaign ought to generate their own momentum.

If the Shakers are to survive their first season and be allowed to grow into an established Division One club, they will do so against the odds and on the back of their phenomenal home form.

They will undoubtedly need the kind of magnificent support they received from the fans last term when average attendances rose by 25%. The supporters have already pledged their faith by buying nearly 300% more season tickets than twelve months ago.

For Stan's army, then, the coming campaign will be akin to marching from a clay pigeon shoot into a nuclear war zone. Only by sticking together will fans and players be able to avoid the fall-out.

Just for the record, and so that you can all write in and abuse me at the end of the season, here are my predictions for the top and bottom of the First Division: 1st, Nottingham Forest; 2nd, Middlesbrough; 3rd, Sunderland. And the bottom three: Reading, Swindon and Oxford.

The Shakers? I reckon - with fingers crossed - 17th or 18th. Have a great season.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.