Tours

Bury FC endeavours to give its youngsters the chance to see the world and experience life outside the football world by taking the youth team and Centre of Excellence squads on tours as often as time permits. The warm-up for the 2006/07 season saw the youth team undertake a successful tour of Scotland, where they took on Gretna and Dundee United while staying at Dundee University’s sports facilities. Another trip to the Highlands awaits for the under 15 and 16 squads, who will be sending a joint team up the M6 and A74 to face Glasgow Celtic during July.

This follows on from a highly successful trip to Holland in May 2006 with some of the younger squads who took on Sparta Rotterdam before taking part in a junior tournament against other top sides from accross Europe. It’s an initiative that has been taking place for some years; in April 2004, Bury FC travelled to the north of Scotland to compete in an Easter tournament at Ross County FC - the first such venture by the club under the new Centre of Excellence coaching staff.

As well as witnessing some fine results on the field, these tours have provided an excellent chance for all the Youth and Centre of Excellence trainees to get to know one another better in a group environment, and great friendships have been formed as the lads enjoy the experience of being away from home.

The club will endeavour to continue such tours on a regular basis to aid the development of the young players at the club, as not only does it allow the players to experience new parts of the world, it also teaches them that there can be some quite gruelling away trips when you’re a professional footballer, particularly if we’re in the same division as Plymouth, Exeter or Torquay (or even in Europe...!) when you make the grade!

We also welcome tourists of our own, with numerous fixtures having taken place against continental opposition in recent years. Last summer we played host to a touring US state side, and we have also enjoyed some competitive fixture against Maltese oufit Pieta Hotspurs, who played against some of our Centre of Excellence sides before receiving a guided tour of Gigg Lane and being offered the chance to take in a first team encounter during their stay.