Saturday, May the 2nd, and Emley lad Joe Clegg has just written himself into Emley football folklore by firing The Pewits into the Northern Premier League's Premier Division, the celebrations that followed were the culmination of another tremendous season for Emley AFC, one, like many before and probably still to come, had its fair share of ups and downs, this is the story of the 2025/26 season.

It was only our second season at non leagues' step 4, that's level 8 on the English football pyramid, following our promotion in 2023/24, we enjoyed a most unexpected season in our first season, missing out on promotion but making the play offs, no one expected to go one better in our second season, it started well, newly crowned NCEL champions Silsden were dispatched 3-0 on a Friday night opener at the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground, Laurence Sorhaindo bagging a brace, "Loz" made it 3 from 2 when he scored in a 1-1 draw with Bradford (Park Avenue), our unbeaten start to the league season continued with a fine 2-0 away win at newly promoted Redcar Athletic.

It might not have seemed it at the time but that result would stand out, Redcar would win the league by a big margin, Emley would be the only side to beat them on their own ground, not only that, but Emley became the only team Redcar wouldn't score against, despite scoring a whopping 140 goals across the league season, they couldn't find the back of the Emley net!

Following that win on Teesside, successive draws at home to Garforth and away at North Ferriby meant Emley had started the season 5 unbeaten, sadly, there was to be no cup runs this season as The Pewits suffered defeats in the FA Cup, a 1-5 thumping away at Longridge Town and 0-2 defeat to Heaton Stannington in the FA Trophy meant Emley could concentrate on the league, which they did, although a run to the quarter final of the county cup saw us defeated at perennial winners, Worksop Town.

Newly promoted sides Lincoln Utd and Blyth Town were beaten before we suffered our first defeat in our first 7 league games when Grimsby Borough snatched an unlikely win at the Welfare Ground in late September.

Two consecutive draws, an entertaining 3-3 away at Consett followed by a less than entertaining 0-0 at Hallam were followed up with a midweek win at neighbours, Brighouse Town, Ashington were then dispatched 3-0 before Emley's biggest test of the season in mid October, Matlock Town were the big spending, big name club who had come down from the Premier Division and were expected to breeze their way back to it, they proved far too good for Emley and won 3-1.

Another big name followed as Emley travelled to Blyth Spartans, who had suffered back to back relegations and would struggle again for most parts of the season, a 0-0 draw was a good result on the road for The Pewits and their travelling fans, but there was disappointment in the next game as another struggling North East team, Bishop Auckland posted a 2-0 win at the Welfare Ground, that would prove to be Emley's last home defeat for 4 months as we put ourselves up amongst the top teams again.

Despite getting results, Emley struggled to score and indeed create much in many games, defensively sound with Lambton in goal, Cowgill, Barks, Sheppeard and new signing Ellis Farrar slotting in seamlessly, but it was the arrival of Gabriel Johnson and Bailey Thompson that gave us an extra dimension and sparked our attack up, between November and January, Gabby and Bailey had netted 18 times between them and push us right into the promotion mix.

November started with a fine 2-1 win away at Heaton Stannington, Thompson bagging his first goal on his debut, which was followed by a 3-1 thumping of Bridlington Town as we made our home "Fortress Fantastic Media Welfare Ground, Another win on the road, 1-0 at Newton Aycliffe, where Johnson scored his first meant Emley were unbeaten in the league in the North East, Pontefract were then hammered 4-0 at home in a West Yorkshire derby before our North East run ended, somewhat inevitably against our 'bogey team' in Dunston.

Three consecutive wins, all with clean sheets came next as we headed into the Christmas period, Grimsby Borough away, Blyth Town and Bradford (Park Avenue) were all kept out before we went down 1-0 at Garforth in a boxing day clash watched by over 800 in East Leeds, we more than made up for that though on new years day, Bailey Thompson scored a hat trick as Ossett were dispatched 3-1 in a raucous derby game in front of 904, Emley's biggest crowd for a competitive game since 1999, this record wouldn't last very long though!

And so heading into 2026, Emley were right in the promotion hunt and battling out with Redcar, Matlock and Dunston at the top, another goalless draw with Hallam followed by a super 3-1 win on the road at Consett kept up our good record when we've travelled up the A1, Brighouse were spanked 5-0 with a splendid hat trick from Gabby Johnson, Johnson then bagged a late penalty to see off Blyth Spartans 1-0 as we headed into our most testing time of the season so far.

Matlock Town away, a long midweek trip to Ashington away and then Dunston at home was a huge challenge for The Pewits but to a man, they all stood up to that challenge to complete a wonderful hat trick of wins, first of all, a big and noisy travelling army saw us out play, out think, outfought and out scored Matlock as we hammered The Gladiators on their own turf, which was pretty poor by NPL D1 standards, just 3 days later a gruelling trip to deepest Northumberland saw us come from behind to snatch a win at Ashington before Dunston were dispatched 3-0 at the Welfare Ground, three superb results that had given Emley fans hope that they could even seal automatic promotion!

Then, in March, deja vu hit, last season, Emley's form tailed off in the spring, coupled with Dec Lambton getting injured, it seemed to derail the season slightly and almost the same thing seemed to be happening, Lambton, a mainstay of Emley's success and defensive solidity over the last 4 years was prised away by Matlock, who despite spending huge sums were seeing their promotion hopes slipping away, it left Emley frantically searching for a keeper to see out the season, a disappointing last minute, 2-1 defeat at relegation threatened Bishop Auckland was followed by a convincing 2-0 win in midweek at Silsden, then the brakes were hit!

Emley suddenly found themselves in a hole, out of form, lacking confidence, our long standing keeper and our rock in defence was gone, our captain, jack Cowgill was injured and we seemed to lose all form, confidence, shape and ideas, a lacklustre 2-0 defeat at the Welfare Ground by Heaton Stannington ended our run of 9 games without defeat at home, a run that saw us only concede once in those 9 games, another big away following saw us pick up a hard earned point on the coast at Bridlington Town before another stoppage time goal saw us beaten after a poor performance at Lincoln Utd.

The fans were still with the team, travelling in big numbers to all the away games and averaging over 400 at home, but there was an air of disappointment that it appeared our promotion hopes were gone, Redcar had almost sealed the title, running away with the league and we had lost second place to Matlock who started picking wins up, and then lost 3rd place to a resurgent Dunston, by the time champions-elect Redcar turned up to the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground, Emley were sitting 4th and were now in danger of missing out on the play offs altogether, local rivals Pontefract and Bradford PA were breathing down our necks, the 0-0 draw with free scoring Redcar then was a fine result in itself.

But we needed wins and didn't look like getting any, another poor performance at neighbours Ossett ended with us picking up a point when Joe Clegg bundled home a late equaliser, but followed up with another disappointing home defeat, 0-2 v North Ferriby, and so we had 2 games left, we needed 2 points to be sure of a play off place, one of those games was a huge local derby with Pontefract, a win for the Colls would have seen them leapfrog Emley into 4th and we could be in danger of missing out in the last game.

A massive crowd, Pontefract's biggest ever for a league game of over 800, including a 200+ following from Emley saw The Pewits create chances but not take them and approaching the hour mark, were 2-0 down and looked down and out, but a superb last 20 minutes where Emley fought and scrapped for their lives and we pulled it back to earn a 2-2 draw and more or less secure a play off spot, mathematically, we still needed a point but results elsewhere made it nigh on impossible for anyone to overtake us.

And so with a play off and 4th place secured, there was one last game to go, a game that would determine if we played Dunston at home or away in the play off semi final, we lost in stoppage time at Dunston in the semi final last year, so didn't fancy going there again, it meant we had to beat already relegated Newton Aycliffe and Dunston needed to slip up, ironically against Pontefract who had seen Bradford overtake them for the final play off spot following that 2-2 draw, it all came together nicely, Emley trounced Aycliffe 6-0, Sorhaindo bagging a first ever Emley hat trick, while Ponte did us a massive favour by beating Dunston, and so Dunston would be coming to the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground for a play off semi final.

The game was far from a classic, but in front of a crowd of 909, setting a new record for Emley, Sorhaindo was on target again as Emley got revenge over Dunston for last year, the 'bogey team' looks to have been banished! And it appeared to set up a play off final at Matlock, but a fantastic and surprising result saw Matlock beaten by Bradford and so it meant the play off final would be a West Yorkshire derby played at Emley.

A momentous occasion saw the crowd record smashed again as 1,771 including a big following from Bradford saw a nervy, uninspiring game with few chances, inevitably it went to extra time, and then to penalties, and so the entire season came down to penalty kicks, it all went to plan for the first 3 each which were scored but then Bradford's 4th sailed wide.

Emley had a chance, Bailey Thompson scored for Emley and then Bradford's keeper netted to set up the final act for Joe Clegg, Clegg's spot kick crashed into the net and the cheers of relief and delight erupted as the fans spilled onto the pitch to celebrate, Emley had done it, from the brink of missing out to the elation of promotion again, a 3rd promotion in 7 years for Richard Tracey and his team which will surely mean the freedom of the village for all of them!