Mark Patterson will be our guest for our FA Vase fixture against Maghull tomorrow, James Bentley looks back on his career.
It’s no overstatement to say that Mark Patterson saved Bury Football Club when he was sold to Bolton in January 1991.
Close season spending had reached previously unprecedented levels just six months before, when a combined £430,000 was spent on John McGinlay, Colin Greenall, Roger Stanislaus and Ronnie Mauge. When things started going from adequately to awry on the pitch, culminating in the defeat at Chorley in the first round of the cup, the 1990 cash crisis began as Hugh Eaves withdrew his funding.
Mark had been a consistent performer in the Bury midfield since his arrival from Preston in the middle of the 1989/90 season, helping the Shakers to the Third Division play-offs which they lost at the semi-final stage to Tranmere Rovers. A tendency for the spectacular, including a jinking, slaloming run against Blackpool that concluded with a beautiful chip over George Wood, went hand in hand with a combative style that fans love. Patterson’s determination to win was forged on the streets of East Lancashire where he was born and where he made his league debut, for Blackburn Rovers.
His performances hadn’t gone unnoticed by Phil Neal, who was managing that lot up Bolton Road. In fact, there was no way he could have not noticed Mark’s opening goal for Bury in the Gigg Lane derby played in October 1990 when he hit one of the most sweetly-struck free-kicks the Manchester Road End has ever seen, from all of 30 yards out, to leave Dave Felgate flapping at fresh air.
As the cash crisis bit hard, the entire playing staff was put on the transfer list. Neal pounced and took Mark to Burnden Park where he had a hugely successful spell in Bolton’s team that enjoyed cup runs and promotions while we enviously looked on. But at least we had a club thanks to the Wanderers’ cash that kept the wolf from the door, at least until Bury’s next financial implosion in 2001/02.
By that time, Mark had spent a second spell at Bury as he signed for Stan Ternent’s side following a morning meeting in Magaluf with Stan, Sam Ellis, Terry Robinson and his then manager at Sheffield United, Howard Kendall. While not as successful as his first, Mark weighed in with one of the three spectacular goals away at Birmingham City in March 1998.
If this all sounds very entertaining, that’s because that’s exactly what Mark’s career was. So too is his story which he tells in his autobiography ‘Old School – A Proper Football Education’ and it will be great to see him back at Gigg.
