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Phil Parkinson knows full well how brightly passions burn at Gigg Lane on derby day and how just quickly things can fade out with the Shakers.
Back in the late eighties, the Wanderers boss joined Bury as a wet-behind-the-ears 20-year-old from Southampton, yet to make his debut in the Football League.
He scored in his first game, a 3-1 win against Brentford, and went on to form the backbone of an impressive midfield over the next four seasons.
Parkinson was in good company too – as much like today, the Shakers had a healthy budget, recruiting the likes of John McGinlay, David Lee, Tony Cunningham and Mark Patterson in an effort to reach the second tier for the first time in two decades.
It was, however, a team that never quite lived up to its potential and never achieved the promotion it craved. A Tony Philliskirk-inspired defeat against Wanderers in the 1990/91 play-off semi-final coupled with the financial problems which had been brewing all season led to the squad being disbanded. At one point the entire of Sam Ellis’s first team squad was placed on the transfer list and though Parkinson played on for another 12 months before moving to Reading, he could not prevent them slipping back into the old Division Four.
It is nevertheless a time in his playing career that he looks back upon with great affection.
“I loved my time at Bury, it was a great education in the game,” he told The Bolton News. “I’d turned up from Southampton as a kid and I was suspended at first but I made my debut against Brentford, scored a goal, and things went pretty well for me there. It showed me the rigours of being a professional footballer in what’s now League One, and I got to play alongside some very good players.
“They had spent something like £175,000 on John McGinlay at one point, so there were really going for it. But away from all that it’s a family club. Some of the people who worked there all the way back then are still there now.
“Managers, players, even chairmen come and go, but some of the people behind the scenes at that place have kept it going.
“I’ve still got the little starter home I bought when I first turned up there, which isn’t far away from the club. I’ve got lots of friends around the place too. It’ll be nice to go back.”
Parkinson’s primary aim on Monday night will be to end one of Wanderers’ longest-running hoodoos.
The last time they won a league game at Gigg Lane, the financial world was about to take a massive hit with the Wall Street Crash and public telephone boxes were being installed in London for the first time. Not since May 1929 has a Bolton team taken three points from their local rivals in Bury – a season which also saw them lift the FA Cup for a third time at Wembley with a 2-0 win over Portsmouth.
Bruce Rioch’s team of 1993, containing some of the stars who had once turned out for the Shakers, did manage to beat their local rivals the League Cup. But Parkinson remembers well how the local derby is viewed on the opposite side of the border, a factor he believes is partly responsible for the long wait for a Bolton league win.
“I remember it’s what the Bury fans lived for, beating Bolton,” he said. “I can still recall walking off the pitch at Burnden when we’d beaten them 4-2 and feeling such pride in that result. I was only young then but you knew how much it mattered. I can also remember the pitch invasion in the play-offs after Tony Philliskirk had scored and just wishing I was anywhere else.
“Looking back there is a lot of local pride at Bury and it is something we need to match 100 per cent. If any of my players have any doubt about how big a game this is – I think they’ll get an answer in the first couple of minutes. We need to be prepared.”
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Back in the late eighties, the Wanderers boss joined Bury as a wet-behind-the-ears 20-year-old from Southampton, yet to make his debut in the Football League.
He scored in his first game, a 3-1 win against Brentford, and went on to form the backbone of an impressive midfield over the next four seasons.
Parkinson was in good company too – as much like today, the Shakers had a healthy budget, recruiting the likes of John McGinlay, David Lee, Tony Cunningham and Mark Patterson in an effort to reach the second tier for the first time in two decades.
It was, however, a team that never quite lived up to its potential and never achieved the promotion it craved. A Tony Philliskirk-inspired defeat against Wanderers in the 1990/91 play-off semi-final coupled with the financial problems which had been brewing all season led to the squad being disbanded. At one point the entire of Sam Ellis’s first team squad was placed on the transfer list and though Parkinson played on for another 12 months before moving to Reading, he could not prevent them slipping back into the old Division Four.
It is nevertheless a time in his playing career that he looks back upon with great affection.
“I loved my time at Bury, it was a great education in the game,” he told The Bolton News. “I’d turned up from Southampton as a kid and I was suspended at first but I made my debut against Brentford, scored a goal, and things went pretty well for me there. It showed me the rigours of being a professional footballer in what’s now League One, and I got to play alongside some very good players.
“They had spent something like £175,000 on John McGinlay at one point, so there were really going for it. But away from all that it’s a family club. Some of the people who worked there all the way back then are still there now.
“Managers, players, even chairmen come and go, but some of the people behind the scenes at that place have kept it going.
“I’ve still got the little starter home I bought when I first turned up there, which isn’t far away from the club. I’ve got lots of friends around the place too. It’ll be nice to go back.”
Parkinson’s primary aim on Monday night will be to end one of Wanderers’ longest-running hoodoos.
The last time they won a league game at Gigg Lane, the financial world was about to take a massive hit with the Wall Street Crash and public telephone boxes were being installed in London for the first time. Not since May 1929 has a Bolton team taken three points from their local rivals in Bury – a season which also saw them lift the FA Cup for a third time at Wembley with a 2-0 win over Portsmouth.
Bruce Rioch’s team of 1993, containing some of the stars who had once turned out for the Shakers, did manage to beat their local rivals the League Cup. But Parkinson remembers well how the local derby is viewed on the opposite side of the border, a factor he believes is partly responsible for the long wait for a Bolton league win.
“I remember it’s what the Bury fans lived for, beating Bolton,” he said. “I can still recall walking off the pitch at Burnden when we’d beaten them 4-2 and feeling such pride in that result. I was only young then but you knew how much it mattered. I can also remember the pitch invasion in the play-offs after Tony Philliskirk had scored and just wishing I was anywhere else.
“Looking back there is a lot of local pride at Bury and it is something we need to match 100 per cent. If any of my players have any doubt about how big a game this is – I think they’ll get an answer in the first couple of minutes. We need to be prepared.”
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