Post by jamesisaburyfan on May 13, 2014 8:51:50 GMT -5
Good afternoon everyone. Firstly, please accept my apologies if I’ve posted this in the wrong forum.
My name is James Bentley and I’m a Bury fan. In the 1984/85 season, my team got promoted from Division Four using only 15 players all season.
The club have never commemorated this squad on any of the anniversaries since the promotion and I wondered why that might be. I came to the conclusion that the season in question was probably the worst in the history of the English game, as hooliganism reared its head on what seemed like a weekly basis and disasters claimed dozens of lives at Valley Parade in Bradford, Heysel Stadium in Brussels and St Andrews in Birmingham.
But alongside the unpleasantness of the national game back then, the country as a whole seemed to be a pretty grim place too. Whatever your opinions of the person, Margaret Thatcher was very nearly assassinated by the IRA at the Grand Hotel in Brighton – and, of course, there was the miners’ strike.
I’ve decided that all of these factors together will form what I’d hope will be a book called ‘The Forgotten Fifteen: How Bury Triumphed In British Football’s Worst Year.’ You can find out more, including the identities of the 15 players and pictures of the 14 who are still alive today, at: www.facebook.com/theforgottenfifteen
I’m not writing this post as a means of attempting to explain the strike or anything like that. I’d just like to know from any supporters of clubs in mining communities how football as a whole treated them back then. For instance, if fans of a London club went to away games at a place like Chesterfield, were they antagonistic to the home fans, based on what they were seeing on the six o’clock news? When Mansfield and Chesterfield faced each other on Boxing Day 1984, what was the atmosphere like?
If any fans of Mansfield or Chesterfield or any other club would like to talk to me about watching their team during the strike, I’d be very interested to hear your responses.
Thanks for your time,
James
My name is James Bentley and I’m a Bury fan. In the 1984/85 season, my team got promoted from Division Four using only 15 players all season.
The club have never commemorated this squad on any of the anniversaries since the promotion and I wondered why that might be. I came to the conclusion that the season in question was probably the worst in the history of the English game, as hooliganism reared its head on what seemed like a weekly basis and disasters claimed dozens of lives at Valley Parade in Bradford, Heysel Stadium in Brussels and St Andrews in Birmingham.
But alongside the unpleasantness of the national game back then, the country as a whole seemed to be a pretty grim place too. Whatever your opinions of the person, Margaret Thatcher was very nearly assassinated by the IRA at the Grand Hotel in Brighton – and, of course, there was the miners’ strike.
I’ve decided that all of these factors together will form what I’d hope will be a book called ‘The Forgotten Fifteen: How Bury Triumphed In British Football’s Worst Year.’ You can find out more, including the identities of the 15 players and pictures of the 14 who are still alive today, at: www.facebook.com/theforgottenfifteen
I’m not writing this post as a means of attempting to explain the strike or anything like that. I’d just like to know from any supporters of clubs in mining communities how football as a whole treated them back then. For instance, if fans of a London club went to away games at a place like Chesterfield, were they antagonistic to the home fans, based on what they were seeing on the six o’clock news? When Mansfield and Chesterfield faced each other on Boxing Day 1984, what was the atmosphere like?
If any fans of Mansfield or Chesterfield or any other club would like to talk to me about watching their team during the strike, I’d be very interested to hear your responses.
Thanks for your time,
James