SUNDAY, April 5 at Altrincham Ice Dome.

The Manchester Phoenix ENL team clinched promotion to Division One on Sunday night, but it was a nail-biting affair against local rivals Blackburn Hawks before the celebrations could begin.

This game was the return leg of a two-game series to decide a place in Division One for next season.

Two weeks ago, in Blackburn, the game was drawn at two-all, and this one had the air of a cup final with the winner to take all.

The last game was a close and exciting encounter and the huge, noisy ENL crowd in Altrincham was expecting more of the same and they were not disappointed.

While the Hawks had scored in the first minute at Blackburn, the Phoenix were not to be outdone at home, Tom King collected a loose puck in front of Matthew Mitchie’s goal and scored with just 27 seconds ticked off the clock.

After surviving the first Hawk’s power-play, including a short session of 5-on-3, Phoenix conceded immediately into the second penalty.

Aaron Davies pounced on a hesitant clearance by the Phoenix defence in the 12th minute to give Tom McDonald no chance.

The Phoenix proved to be made of stern stuff all evening, bouncing back a minute later through Ben Wood, with assists to Manchester Man of the Match, Phil Hamer and Jamie Rogerson.

Blackburn restored the balance in the 15th minute, Anthony Kinder the scorer.

Phoenix then established what was to prove to be the game-winning buffer.

Tom King added his second in the 17th minute tipping in Robyn Crebbin’s slap-pass, quickly followed by Ben Wood’s second, on a delayed penalty, assisted by Jamie Rogerson to give the home side a vital two-goal margin at the first interval.

The interval coaching talks bolstered both defences and whilst there was no shortage of goal-mouth action, the crowd had to wait until almost the midway point of the game before Blackburn reduced the margin to a single marker when David Meikle swept the puck past Tom Mc Donald with an assist going to Neal Haworth.

Another nine minutes passed before the Phoenix thought that they had re-established their two goal lead.

But, much to Manchester’s disappointment, the referee ruled ‘no goal’ as he hadn’t seen the puck cross the line.

In such a tense encounter, with so much at stake, this could have caused Phoenix heads to drop and given a fillip to the Hawks.

It was not to be as just 15 seconds later, Phil Hamer scored the first goal in his natural hat-trick. The advantage was back to two goals at 5-3 to take into the final session.

Ian Thirkettle replaced Matt Mitchie in the Hawk’s net for the final stanza and the period became a seven-goal thriller all of its own making.

Blackburn reduced the arrears within a munte of the restart, Ric Bentham netting for the Hawks.

With the Hawks boosted, Hamer buried his second of the game in the 44th minute to quieten the travelling support.

Bentham then netted his second of the period to make it 6-5 in the 46th minute only for Hamer to complete his treble on a powerplay with just less then 10 minutes to play.

Once again, Blackburn bit back and Sam Dunford again made it a one-goal affair in the 54th minute.

Former Phoenix U-18 captain Jake Nurse restored the two-goal lead inside the final five minutes assisted by Ben Wood only for the relegation threatened Hawks to up the pressure yet again.

Manchester were reduced to four men on a tripping penalty with less than two minutes to play and the Hawks punished them with the second of the night from David Meikle assisted by Hawks’ Man of the Match Craig Rogers.

Hawks goalie Thirkettle was pulled in favour of the extra attacker with just over a minute to play as the Hawks looked to set up camp in the Phoenix zone.

The Phoenix though defended manfully and running down the clock brought unbridled celebrations for the 8-7 victory.

An ENL spokesman said: “Two cracking games between two closely matched teams. The crowd was fabulous, the drumming and singing was great and created a real atmosphere.

"Many thanks to everyone, from both camps, who came here this evening. They can’t have been disappointed with the play of both sides.

“The lads played to their plan. They never allowed the Hawks keeping closing the gap to a single goal to disturb their concentration and formation.

"The disallowed goal could have really rocked our boat, but it didn’t and that’s a credit to the character that they have showed all season.

"For the first time, we didn’t surrender the first period and that made the difference tonight.

"It seems a real shame that a single goal in 19 can be the margin between a place in Division One and Division Two.

"But with the probable changes to the clubs available next season, I hope that the Hawks don’t make the drop. The team is too good for that and we’ll look forward to seeing them again next year.” Man of the Match for Phoenix - Phil Hamer.

Man of the Match for the Hawks - Craig Rogers.

Period Scores - 4–2, 1–1, 3-4.

Shots on Goal - (Shots on Phoenix first). Total - 42 – 37.

Phoenix Stats - Phil Hamer 3+1, Ben Wood 2+1, Jamie Rogerson 0+3, Tom King 2+0, Robyn Crebbin 0+2, Jake Nurse 1+0. Nets - Tom McDonald 42/7 (83.33 per cent).