As Bury FC collapsed the ladies played on - now the women's Shakers are on the rise

"Centre halves are heads on sticks."

In certain spheres of British football Michael's assessment rings true.

We are chatting on the touchline, two blokes who love the game and played it in an era when you had to commit a section 18 assault to get a red card.

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But the irony is that his own daughter is a gifted, cultured, defender.

Ella Mooney moves forward from a left back berth and surges past the opposition's midfield with the unstoppable certainty of a cruise liner gliding through a calm Mediterranean.

She has steel too.

Ella once played for Manchester City and it shows - no panic, but plenty of vision and panache.

Her blend of class and grit is mirrored throughout the team she now plays for.

They wear the white shirts and blue shorts of a proud footballing town.

The same club was once blessed - albeit for only five games - by the bewitching talents of a young Stan Bowles, and was where the awesome stamina and huge potential of Colin Bell was spied by Malcolm Allison.

The flying binman, alias Neville Southall, a Welsh international and Everton legend, also started his professional career there.

Like many small clubs it has been a springboard for raw talent to progress.

But in August 2019 Bury FC, founded in 1885, were thrown out of the football league after years of ducking winding up orders due to a calamitous financial state.

Bury FC Women's Foundation carried on playing thought the turmoil - but suffered their own turmoil too.

In 2019 the club's ladies won promotion to the Premier of the North West Area League.

They had graced the famous Gigg Lane pitch with several games on their way to becoming champions of