Re: If Blues did a Bury
BaltiThey were basically the Mitchells brewery works team, played out of a ground at the Cape Hill premises. In the days of amateurism, H. J. Mitchell could recruit top players by promising them a decent wage for a brewery job. And then give them all the time off they needed to play.[en.m.wikipedia.org].
Could reform under this name. I never even realised such a team had ever existed.
Couple of things did for them. One, professionalism. It pushed the wages up so the brewery could not countenance subsidizing them any more - plus Mitchell, their biggest supporter, died. Two, the League. The first few clubs decided that there should only be one club per town/city, so, given that Vile and West Brom were both founders, they didn't want a strong club in between them taking their support (St George's reached the FA Cup quarters in 1889, and only just lost to Preston's Invincibles).
They joined the Alliance, the "alternative" league, along with us, but the League gradually nibbled away at the top clubs in it (Sunderland, Forest, Darwen) and then absorbed the whole lot in toto as the Second Division. By which time the finances had basically crippled St George's and they went bust.
Most of their support went to the Albion, and that showed just how important League membership was; Albion were basically a similar works side (for Salters) but the income from League match tickets was the sort of game-changer that Sky money is now. Instead of maybe 3 important Cup ties and a handful of friendlies, each club was guaranteed 11 matches against sides that could be considered the best in the nation. Even though half of the original League was basically cannon-fodder (Burnley for instance had never won a Cup tie) included to keep out stronger clubs.