Bury have bounced back under Ryan Lowe and are looking up again
Bury face Portsmouth in the Checkatrade Trophy semi-final, live on Sky Sports Football from 7.30pm
Tuesday 26 February 2019 20:52, UK
Bury have shrugged off relegation and financial problems to chase an unlikely double under Ryan Lowe. Adam Bate went to the club's training to speak to the manager and his in-form midfielder Jay O'Shea to find out how the Shakers have turned it all around in such style...
"When the old chairman offered me the job in the summer I was in tears," Ryan Lowe tells Sky Sports. "It was a big moment. I had tears in my eyes because I wanted to do what was best for the football club as well as myself and my family. I wanted to get the club back up."
Bury had just finished bottom of League One, despite Lowe's best efforts in two spells as caretaker manager. He had been left with an impossible task on the pitch, while the club faced financial problems off it, surviving the latest winding-up petition just this month. But the biggest issue that Lowe had to address was the culture at the club. Bury needed to change.
"The egos of the previous regime were only interested in how much money they were earning," Lowe explains. "The number of players coming in and out the door was a bit of joke really. We had eight lads on loan towards the back end of last season. I questioned whether I wanted the job when all that was going on. I did wonder what I was taking on.
"But as soon as I knew I would be allowed to bring in the players that I wanted I knew we would be in a good position. I brought in lads who wanted to play for Bury and for me and not just come here because the club was in Greater Manchester. That was the difference."
Lowe and his assistant Steven Schumacher have since turned Bury's fortunes around. The team go into Tuesday's Checkatrade Trophy semi-final against Portsmouth on an 11-game unbeaten run in all competitions that has also seen them climb to second in the table just two points behind leaders Lincoln. An improbable league and cup double is still possible.
Hard work conquers all reads the message on the wall at the club's training ground and that typifies Lowe's attitude. "I grew up on a council estate in Liverpool," he explains. "As a lad, I had to try 10 times harder than anyone else to get to where I wanted to get to. I was always doubted as a kid, you'll never do this and never do that, but I had a decent career."
Lowe did rather better than that, scoring almost 200 goals in 17 seasons in the Football League, seven of them in three different spells with Bury. He understands this club and that has been reflected in his recruitment. One of the first moves was to bring back the experienced Nicky Adams, a one-time youth teamer at the club whose father is still a season-ticket holder.
The attitude at Bury is right again but there is much more to their success than that. They have already scored 88 goals in all competitions, playing with adventure, brio and imagination. Lowe asks: "Why can't Bury play like Liverpool or Manchester City with the energy, the movement and the commitment that they have got? Why not? Why can't you?
"We have built a squad of players who we can trust to play. They have all played at a good level and been in academies so they can handle the football. I want them to play football that excites. Sometimes you are three on three at the back but you have to get your balls out basically and be brave. That's what the lads have done. They have committed to it."
Nobody embodies that more than midfielder Jay O'Shea, who has twice won the League Two player of the month award this season having scored 17 goals in his last 24 games. Lowe describes him as "a pleasure to work with" and in "magnificent" form but the manager deserved credit too for switching him to the deeper position where he has been such a revelation.
"It is quite a different role for me," O'Shea tells Sky Sports. "You would think that playing further forwards would mean more goals but when I was playing as a No 10, I had my back to goal and I found it quite hard. Now that I am playing a bit deeper, I have the game in front of me. It took me a while to get used to the new position but it suits me more."
As well as symbolising Bury's style, O'Shea also sums up the rollercoaster of emotions that the club has been on in recent seasons. A little over 18 months ago, he rejected the chance to sign for Sheffield United, now second in the Championship, in the belief that he could get there with Bury. Naturally, the subsequent relegation hit him hard.
"I thought I would play more games here and that we were putting a squad together that would challenge to get into the Championship," he explains. "When it turned out to be the complete opposite, it was tough to get my head around it. I was thinking, why didn't I just go to Sheffield United in the Championship? You do start thinking like that. But it's easy with hindsight. I took a few knocks but I just got my head down and worked hard."
The club's financial predicament clearly complicated matters. Bury were fending off winding-up petitions from HMRC as long ago as 2016 and the problems haven't completely gone away. At least there is the promise of a brighter future now that former chairman Stewart Day has handed control to new man Steve Dale, but there can be no denying that this has been a testing time for everyone at the club.
There were times last year where you were going into games and you were supposed to have been paid on the Friday and it wasn't in. That can definitely affect you on a Saturday.
"It was hard last season with the finances and what was going on both on and off the pitch," admits O'Shea. "The lads are getting paid on time now and that obviously helps because there were times last year when you were going into games and you were supposed to have been paid on the Friday and it wasn't in. That can definitely affect your game on a Saturday."
Lowe is not keen to dwell on the finances, preferring to praise his players for retaining their focus. But, as O'Shea points out, it can't have been easy for him either and it will be a weight off his mind if the issues are finally behind them. "It's good that the manager doesn't have to worry about players ringing him up and asking whether they are going to get paid now," he adds.
"Something that the gaffer is very good at is making everyone happy to be here. If we lose, he will have a go but then he draws a line under it because he wants people to enjoy it here and he has managed to make it an enjoyable place to be. That's his focus and it's a brilliant trait to be able to get that team spirit going again so quickly after suffering relegation."
So what can Bury achieve now? There was once talk of a five-year plan to get to the Championship but everyone is a bit more cautious now. The new chairman has made it clear that he is not an ATM machine and everyone understands that. Anything that's achieved will be through hard graft, but there are things in place that could help take the club to the next level.
In 2015, the club moved into Manchester City's old Carrington training ground complete with huge gym and hydrotherapy pool. O'Shea was at Birmingham when the club was in the Premier League but he still enthuses about the facilities on offer. "They were built for a Premier League club so it is great to be here training every day," he adds.
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For Lowe, it is a far cry from his own days at Bury. "When I was here we were training at Lower Gigg and Goshen," he says. "Those are tough places to train. This place is second to none. The facilities are brilliant but the good thing is that the players know it's not the norm. We make sure they know it's a privilege to have it and when we are here, we are here to work."
The work continues and for the first time in a long time, Bury's future looks bright. "It's a new era and we are on the right track," he adds. So, after the tears of the summer, what would it mean to him now to get Bury back up? "It would beat anything. She won't like me saying it, but it would probably even beat meeting the missus on that night out in 1999."
Bury take on Portsmouth with a trip to Wembley at stake in the Checkatrade Trophy semi-final, live on Sky Sports Football this Tuesday from 7.30pm
