Bury 2 Millwall 0

GROWN men were reduced to tears at Gigg Lane on Saturday (May 3). . . and not just because they were locked out of a packed ground.

The memories of twenty-eight years wandering in the wilderness of the Football League's lower two divisions had been swept aside a week earlier at Watford but to clinch a championship on home soil was the ultimate reward for patience.

It was too much for many of the older fans who have always regarded their team as one that should be in the First Division. Scores of spectators were overcome by the tidal wave of emotion that greeted victory. To be at Gigg Lane on Saturday was a day never to be forgotten.

A shirt-sleeved crowd, nudging 10,000 strong, began arriving three hours before kick-off. The family stand was shut at 1.45pm and the South Stand quickly followed suit as the whole town at last responded to their hugely successful football team.

Defeated former Bury North MP Alistair Burt shared a directors' box seat with the man who supplanted him, David Chaytor, and Bury South's Ivan Lewis was also there. This was a moment when Bury was truly unified. When Man United and Man City fans became Shakers for the day and when Stan Ternent smiled for a whole hour!

It was a bad day for the bookmakers who had so generously offered Bury at 25-1 for the title. Major shareholder Hugh Eaves relieved them of £25,000 and the less well off brethren in the press box copped for a cumulative 500 smackers. The players, too, clinched £25,000 in prize money that goes with winning the title.

It wasn't, however, about money. It was about making a statement. A statement that Bury are no longer a little club to be patronised, to be patted on the head and then ignored. It was an afternoon about proving that Bury have a right to be in the same division as the Manchester and Birmingham Cities of this world.

Undefeated all season at home (the first time since 1894); only seven goals conceded (the lowest total since 1923/24); and a record equalling 25 league games without defeat at Gigg Lane. The class of 96-97 has much of which to be proud.

It wasn't, however, all plain-sailing on Saturday as managerless Millwall, who have been in free fall since topping the section before Christmas, began as though they didn't have a care in the world.

Their movement and swift breaks troubled the Shakers for much of the first half and Dean Kiely, the new folk hero who stands between the Shakers' sticks, had to be at his best to smother efforts from Damian Webber and Lucas Neil.

News of Stockport's early goal at Luton only increased the anxiety caused by a poor first half performance but things changed at the break as Ternent sacrificed defender Ian Hughes for David Johnson, the liveliest of livewires in the Bury camp. Still in wasn't a cruise to victory. Paul Butler was carried off with a torn thigh muscle and David Pugh, the club captain, made an emotional return after being out for four months with a second broken arm.

Frustration mounted when Lennie Johnrose was denied a penalty as he stumbled into the box under a 51st minute challenge from Tony Witter and Kiely had to produce another of his wonder saves to thwart Greg Berry in the 63rd minute.

The explosion of noise when the Shakers finally took the lead in the 67th minute could probably have been heard at Maine Road and Old Trafford and what a fine strike it was from Ronnie Jepson.

Dean West was the architect with a run down the right flank and while everyone was screaming for a pass to the over-lapping Tony Battersby, he flung in a a far post centre that saw Jepson steal in on the blind-side and defeat Tim Carter with a powerful near post header. 1-0 and party time.

The Shakers finally relaxed and Pugh's dramatic rehabilitation was sealed in the 76th minute when he swung over a cross from the left, Jepson nodded it back across goal and Johnrose slid the ball into the bottom corner.

What a day . . . what a season . . . pass the hankie!

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