The old textile city of Bury is just over a mile outside Manchester, and although local football success can hardly be measured by the neighboring metropolitan red and blue teams - United and City - Bury Football Club has been a survivor of English top football. It was 125 years of play in the top four leagues, England's professional leagues, that ended Tuesday.
After a long period of poorly managed club finances, EFL (English Football League) brought in the hard gloves and threw Bury out. One of those grieving is Phil Neville, a former player in, among others, Manchester United.
- I'm devastated. It's a shame. After 125 years, Bury no longer has a football club. It's hard to take in, I can hardly imagine how my mother is doing, "Neville, now the national team for the women's team, tells the BBC.
His mother Jill worked for 31 years as the club's secretary. His late father, Neville by first name, also worked for the club.
- Now it's up to the people of Bury, including me, to give this city that has lived so much at its football club a little heart again, says Phil Neville.