Bury were crowned NWCFL Champions after a 4-0 win over Burscough on a magical day at Gigg Lane, Assistant Manager Tim Lees spoke to the club to give us his thoughts.
Tim Lees: “Yeah, difficult. I think the best moments in life are really difficult to sum up. I can’t put the emotion of today into words, it doesn’t really do it justice. There’s nothing I can say really that would, but it’s been a very, very long journey. I think after the playoffs of last year, obviously the situation we came into, I think we can say it now, we found it difficult last year with the training facilities and the pitch and the journey that the club’s been on but to achieve what we’ve done today; I’m really struggling to put it into words. I think the fans were absolutely unbelievable. I think I’ll speak about them first everyone knows, and for the people listening to this who don’t, the fans lost the club overnight in 2019. I think an incredibly difficult time for the town. When me and Macca [Dave McNabb] sat down last year after the playoffs and we started planning two days later how we wanted the season to look, we wanted to build kind of a style of playing, a way of playing that would excite people. Fifteen games out of the last 15, nine clean sheets out of nine, 130, however many goals. Honestly, the emotion of today, to get nearly 9,000 fans at this level is absolutely unbelievable. I think from what the fans have been through in 2019 to achieve this today; they deserve it more than anyone.”
He then spoke about the commitment of the group of players from the 1st training session in pre-season to now, with him saying “I think when you play for Bury, the pressures extremely intense. The way we play, the courage and the bravery that they’ve shown to play under the immense pressure. I can’t even begin to explain how proud we are of the group, individually, collectively. There are some incredible characters. I’m just absolutely over the moon for the group and the fans and the club and the town that we’ve managed to achieve it.”
Tim then took time to speak about the fans especially after last years playoff pain, he said “Yes, I think the fans deserve it more than anyone. Like I said before, for what they went through in 2019 to not have a club and then to have this celebration today was something special. I think we’ve created memories together that will last forever. Mac [McNabb is an unbelievable manager. I’ve worked with him now for three years. We’ve had two promotions, won the Varse at Wembley. Personally, I’ve had some incredible experiences in football, but that today tops everything. To get nearly 9,000 at this level is absolutely unheard of. It broke so many records. It was incredibly hurtful after the playoffs last year. It was really, really difficult, but two days later we started planning for this season and we knew with the pitch and with the training facilities, we were extremely confident in what we can do. Like I said, to be able to break so many records in terms of most goals scored in the country, the style of play, the way the boys execute what we’ve put in place, the bravery of the show and the courage of the show to get under the ball under immense pressure, I can’t tell you how proud I am of the club, of the fans, of everybody involved.”
To finish the interview Tim told us what his plans were after today “I think we’ll enjoy the next few days. I can’t even begin to explain. Anyone who’s involved in football here can understand. I can’t begin to explain the sleepless nights, the number of hours that you put in behind the scenes. For now, I just want to enjoy it and have a rest. It’s difficult because there’s that many games in this league. You can’t enjoy the wins as staff. It’s so difficult because you just focus on the next game, next session. How do we get better? How do we improve what we’re doing at the moment? I think probably for the first time this season, this and Radcliffe can actually enjoy it. We believe in what we’re doing, and it’ll be the first of many promotions that we get.”