The penultimate round of the Central & North West division of the British Australian Rules Football League saw a double-header at Nottingham with Manchester taking on Birmingham in the early game, with premiership contenders Huddersfield and Nottingham facing off in the later game. For Manchester this fixture was a critical one as the team continued to rebuild and provide its young team with vital match practice, though once again the prospect of facing a tough opposition in the continually improving Birmingham Bears was always going to make for a tough day out. Current form also suggested that Birmingham would comfortably account for the young and inexperienced Mozzies side.

Despite forecasts of a wet, windy and stormy day in Nottingham the sun shone as Birmingham and Manchester took to the field, both teams fielding undermanned but still relatively strong sides.

Current form though counted for little as both sides hit the game hard from the opening bounce, Manchester taking the Bears by surprise with their committed and hard-hitting football. Birmingham had won the toss and had the use of the 2 – 3 goal breeze but squandered a number of opportunities with their wayward kicking, Manchester on the other hand made the most of their chances into the wind with Jayden Hocking, Chris Sproule and Pete Cunningham giving the Mozzies first use fo the ball at centre clearances. In the second quarter the Mozzies made real use of the wind with Al Lindop, returning from an extended injury layoff starting to find his match form, providing real drive out of the back line and Wayne Sumner, James Connor and Mike Kilheeney giving the Mozzies plenty of options up forward. At half time the Mozzies had a surprise two goal lead, the crowd sensing an upset in the making.

In the third quarter the Mozzies took their foot off the pedal and Birmingham kicked four goals in quick succession to take the lead, though in contrast to times gone by this just served to fire up the young Mozzies. As quickly as Birmingham had taken the lead the Mozzies pulled together, sensing that in what has been a tough season on the scoreboard this was a real chance to upset a top side, and banged on a couple of quick goals to go into the final change just two goals down.

In a display reminiscent of the 2010 premiership side, Manchester turned on one of the gutsiest displays of the season: the Mozzies’ midfield continued their relentless pressure to give Manchester first use of the ball at almost every stoppage , their backline held tight choking the Bears’ forward forays and the Mozzies forwards took a step up to give Manchester real options  in attack. In the final minutes when veteran defender Nik Wheeler scored an inspiring goal the Bears were broken and the Mozzies held on to record one of the bets wins in the club’s history.

Proving he’s stepping up week by week in his return from injury, last year’s best and fairest Al Lindop won the Mozzies Man of the Match award for his continual run and drive out of the backline, while first year player James Partridge won the Play of the Day award for an inspiration goal from the boundary line in the first quarter. In the words of coach Chris Sproule though every single player who took to the field contributed for the Mozzies in this memorable win, all eyes now being on the final round against Wolverhampton as the team look to finish their season on a high in this watershed year for the Manchester side.

Manchester: 14.12.96
Birmingham: 11.20.86

Goals (Manchester): Jayden Hocking - 4, Chris Sproule - 3, Wayne Sumner - 3, James Connor - 2, James Partridge - 1, Nik Wheeler - 1