Peter is back in Bury! After successfully keeping Bury in Division 1, what now for Peter and the Shakers? You can find Part 1 here & 2 here

Survival in the second tier with relative ease and games to spare, so in one sense, my efforts have already bettered Stan Ternent’s. In the summer of 1998, he chose to go out on a (massive) high, taking up the reins at fellow Lancashire side Burnley in the league below; the allure of managing a sleeping giant with higher potential than the Shakers were likely to afford him was just too tempting, and much to everyone’s chagrin, the board’s replacement was a certain Neil Warnock. ‘Colin’, as he’s more affectionately known by supporters of sides throughout the country, didn’t have quite the same positive reputation he ‘enjoys’ now, and in his 15-month stint at Gigg Lane, he masterminded a relegation, as well as lumbering the club with the costly signatures of many players he’d previously worked with, many of whom were simply not up to the task. My challenge is simple: avoid the drop and look for younger talent to lower the age profile of the squad…

I attempted not to upset the apple-cart (and budget) too quickly by bringing in lots of new faces all at once, but for some, the attraction of leaving ‘Schoolboy’ and ‘Minor Team’ to adorn the white and royal blue in the old Division 1 was all too apparent. In a similar theme to last season, goals were still going to be a major headache for me. A narrow win away at newly promoted Walsall was swiftly followed by the customary exit at the first hurdle of the League Cup to Merseyside giants Everton, licking their wounds after an unexpected demotion from the bright lights of the Premiership. It took until the seventh fixture of the campaign to register more than one goal in a single match, which was only enough to share the spoils with Tranmere Rovers. Another close encounter with Reading yielded maximum points, and the players showed tremendous fight to come within inches of making the derby at home to promotion favourites Manchester City a six-goal thriller.

The defence as a whole seemed to be a little bit more porous than last year’s collective effort, with six games on the spin shipping one. Although that doesn’t sound a lot on the face of it, without the requisite increase at the other end, it was making any hope of even matching 1997/1998’s final position difficult, even in the first third of the new campaign. October was shaping up to be particularly miserable until Port Vale came to town. My side had come to rely more and more on Jason Peake’s dead ball skills as the months wore on, and thus it proved against the Valiants.

The league meeting with the blue half of Liverpool went precisely as I’d expected: a 3-0 reverse flattered my outclassed group. Thankfully, the city of Stoke-on-Trent had two sides in the same division as me, and the red and white variety were beyond woeful.

Whilst it’s certainly true to state that it took a long time to get back in front, this was the rarest of rare feats: a) an away win, b) a convincing away win, c) a striker scoring more than once in a game and d) actually managing to outshoot and outscore the opposition considerably. I could scarcely believe a certain Ray Wilkins was still turning out at the age of 42, having been drafted in as player-manager in an attempt to arrest Stoke’s slide down the table.

The triumph was the first in a triad of wins, and I somehow conspired to end November unbeaten… but sadly overlooked once more for Manager of the Month. Whilst I was ruing the Football League bigwigs’ ignorance, Stockport County delivered a harsh lesson of their own, spanking five past my shellshocked troops.

The game also marked the debut of 19 year-old right winger Warren Stevenson, and he at least had something to remember the occasion by in a positive manner. Recommend to me by ‘League Scout 2’, within three games, he was second top scorer at the club. With three. In December.

To my relief, the huge setback didn’t take hold of the dressing room for long, as the cloggers down in Berkshire were in festive mood, once again channelling the true spirit of Christmas and gifting Bury three precious points. Huddersfield Town were not so generous, and another ‘0’ was present (no pun intended) in the goals for column.

The FA Cup had drawn me against lower league opposition, which is usually no barrier whatsoever to the other side going through at the Shakers’ expense. Exeter City bucked that particular trend though, being beaten 2-0. Bury were in the hat for the fourth round, which is something neither Ternent nor Warnock managed to do at the helm.

About where I hoped to be in the standings at just past the halfway point, and still in the most famous domestic cup competition in all of football, you’ll have to wait until Part 4 to see which huge name I got!

Peter Taylor is back with Bury. It’s been a short while so uou can find Part 1 here. Can he succeed with the survival bid but with more time to spare than Stan Ternent did for Bury in the ‘old’ Division One? Let’s find out…

23 goals from 29 games had me ranked in 23rd in that particular metric, but thankfully, the only one that really mattered was being 14 points clear of the relegation zone when entering the final third of the campaign. A battling point accrued across the Pennines at Bradford City wasn’t capitalised upon, and the reverse fixture against Man City predictably ended with a heavy defeat. Frank Clark’s virtual management was proving to be a lot more effective than his real-life efforts, and the season tickets of the blue supporters at Maine Road remained intact.

Two encounters pitting the Shakers against north-eastern giants would also yield ‘nil’ in the goals for column. Once more, there was plenty of effort shown from the players but little craft or endeavour that could unlock the expensively assembled defences.

Even with a fresh-faced Robbie Keane in their ranks, Wolves weren’t exactly troubling the promotion contenders, although a home game against my shot-shy performers represented the perfect opportunity to at least put a bit of pressure on the top six…

It’s difficult not to pretend that I wasn’t disappointed; not because I expected a victory, but somehow contriving to score three and not even escaping Molineux with a single point. Alex Notman temporarily found his shooting boots, only adding to the frustration I felt.

Oxford United were next up, and Bury reverted to type, grinding out yet another stalemate to just about keep parity with games played and points gained. This actually represented the start of a fine run, with four consecutive clean sheets. Even with the (rightly) highly rated Dean Kiely in goal, that’s no mean feat. There were crucial wins over ‘local’ rivals Stockport County and Crewe Alexandra (both of which came up with the Greater Manchester outfit the season prior). That had the table looking like this with 10 matches remaining:

Easily the most impressive result to date was over likely champions Nottingham Forest, however…

Where did that come from?! To keep the likes of the volatile Pierre Van Hooijdonk quiet and amass that margin of victory were both things I didn’t expect. David Thompson ran the show from the right flank, scoring once and laying on a wicked cross for Tony Ellis to tap home. Whilst wins were rare, defeats were as well, and the gap had widened to 15 points with nine to play, and six short of Stan the Man’s total.

Besting Tranmere Rovers back at Gigg Lane made it four wins from four in March, but it still somehow wasn’t enough to secure me the Manager of the Month award. Little Bury were once again being cruelly ignored.

Second tier football all but assured, some of the players became a little lackadaisical, and even worse, the majority of the loanees were recalled by their parent clubs with a significant number of games still to be played. Three more blanks were drawn, threatening to take the gloss a little off the collective efforts of the threadbare roster.

Thankfully, they rallied with the tantalising prospect of a holiday to Magaluf dangled before them. A creditable draw at home to Huddersfield was quickly followed by a rare triumph on the road at Charlton, and the subsequent defeat versus Ipswich was quickly forgotten on final day with a comfortable win over Stoke.

My utilisation of three outfield players in the available sub slots has not yet cost me, and today was no exception. That left the final table looking like this:

Top of the bottom half can only be regarded as a success against the first part of the challenge I set myself. The only stat I didn’t improve compared to Ternent was the goals scored column, falling three short of equalling his meagre tally.

And a summary of the fixtures:

Come back soon for Part 3, where I set myself a new challenge for the second season, pitting myself against a certain Neil Warnock…

Peter will be back soon with part 3 but in the meantime you can follow him on Twitter @BurymeinExile

Please welcome Peter Taylor into the CM9798.co.uk family. Peter, not the former Leicester and one time England manager, is here to bring us his save where he will be Bury in the First Division trying to better the great job Stan Ternent did in the 90s. But don’t take it from me, take it from Peter…

Personal Background: CM 2 96/97 was the first version of the series I played, receiving it for Christmas along with my brother on the first family PC we ever had. Like a lot of 10 year-olds in the north-west t the time, I ‘liked’ Manchester United but had been attending Bury games for quite a while by that stage, and it wasn’t long until the latter club won my affections, doubtlessly helped by regular matchday exposure at Gigg Lane and the subsequent, utterly unexpected title win and second successive promotion in May of the following year. Since then, my affiliation with the Shakers has gone from strength to strength, as has my link with the ever-popular video game franchise, having become the club’s researcher for Football Manager 2018.

In-Game Background: Stan Ternent hitherto had a poor record as manager before taking the reins at Gigg Lane; he was assistant to Mike Walsh, who had taken the south Lancashire outfit to their first play-off final (and Wembley appearance) in the ‘old’ Division Three in 1995, only to wither miserably on the day, falling to a 2-0 defeat to Chesterfield. The subsequent campaign had started woefully, and with the home crowd calling for his head as the players were 5-0 down to Plymouth Argyle. The board duly responded, and Walsh’s assistant took over with Bury in the bottom four in mid-September. He almost immediately galvanised his troops to recovery, taking a little time for his methods to be fully implemented by his squad.

From November onwards, only a handful more defeats were suffered, and the rise up the standings was meteoric, culminating in a dramatic wait on the pitch after the final game for confirmation of third place and automatic promotion. His first full season in charge was even more remarkable – tipped for relegation, his charges confounded the pundits, building ‘Fortress Gigg’ in the process – not a single defeat as hosts happened in the league, and the title was built on grinding out 1-0 wins and creditable draws on the road. Back in the second tier for the first time in over three decades, Ternent understandably believed he had taken them as far as he could, and resigned on a huge high. Enter a complete novice…

Of course in real life, ‘Stan the Man’ did no such thing, instead surviving against all the odds on the final day with a 1-0 triumph at Queens Park Rangers, before resigning to take over at neighbouring Burnley. The premise here is to emulate or better his efforts in the first in-game season by both points and league position – 52 and 17th respectively… whilst not making any permanent signings. That self-imposed condition is immediately put to the test by a cursory glance at the roster.

Oh dear. Only one bona fide striker, as Rob Matthews is for some reason down as a MC. Matters are not helped by injuries to defensive colossus Chris Lucketti and the engine of Nick Daws in midfield. That said, the talent is at the back, so if I can find a conservative formation that works, I could just manage to match the best manager Bury have ever had…

It’s already apparent that goals are going to be extremely difficult to come by. The opening game bears that theory out, and Dean Kiely receiving the ‘Man of the Match’ award will become at least as familiar as nil in the goals scored column.

I completely forgot that the League Cup was contested over two legs from the get-go 20 years ago, and it’s a competition that Bury bow out at in the first stage almost without fail. That was no different in the game, although I did muster my first triumph in the second game…

Wins in the league are always scraped, but two on the bounce has the nascent table looking like this…

I’d be more than satisfied if that’s how it ends up in May, but with a threadbare squad, some loan signings are required. The likes of David Thompson from Liverpool and Alex Notman from Manchester United come in. Neither player fulfilled their early promise in reality; however, their virtual selves only need to reach mediocrity to help me achieve my aim.

Three goalless reverses on the spin are timely reminders that survival will not come readily, my rustiness at the game that I sank hundreds of hours in after high school finished way back when showing badly. Saying that, I recall vividly just how goalkeeper Richard Wright was talked up at the time at Ipswich Town. In my game, he unconscionably made the move to arch rivals Norwich City and is probably the only custodian in ‘Division One’ whose stats better Kiely’s.

He did me a massive favour by getting himself sent off, allowing my side to grind out a crucial win. This was the start of a four-game spell of consecutive clean sheets, and the standings a third of the way into the season reads much like it did after six:

The board are unsurprisingly pleased with my efforts thus far, and in a reflection of the time the game was released, the figures banded about for even the highest value players wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow in 2018. Income streams are largely reliant on player sales and gate receipts, but that didn’t stop them being effusive in their praise of a very small profit.

Matchday 17 was a trip to Maine Road to face Manchester City. In stark contrast to how things played out in the flesh, Joe Royle’s men are flying high in the standings, and there isn’t a torn season ticket in sight on Moss Side. Paul Butler was the hero on Valentine’s Day in what is still my favourite ever away game – not for the performance, but the result, and what it meant to both sets of supporters. It also remains the only time I’ve been kept back for half an hour after the final whistle blew. Could a repeat performance happen in-game?

No, but not for want of trying. The defensive unit were resolute, repelling wave after wave of City attacks, but were helpless to prevent Nigel Clough from getting the winner.

Tony Ellis was doing his level best, but he’s not really of the standard required to spearhead the side on his own up top, The game prevents you from making more than five loan signings during a single season, so I had to persist with him. Notman made him look like Robbie Keane by comparison, mind!

Failing to trouble the scoresheet seemed to occur in patches. Four more encounters came and went with nothing for the loyal supporters to cheer about, but they could take solace in the subsequent 2-2 draw at home to West Bromwich Albion, who have threats all over the pitch. Christmas was a kind period to us, four points gained from the two festive fixtures. The customary exit in the FA Cup followed, although losing to Premier League Wimbledon was certainly no disgrace.

As Part 1 of my challenge comes to an end, it doesn’t look likely as though Bury will suffer relegation, but it’s certain that a second season in Division One is the best the fans can hope for, both in terms of the standings and entertainment. Can I finish the job in Part 2? Find out soon…

You can follow me on Twitter @burymeinexile