Emley AFC are promoted as league champions from the Northern Counties East League Premier Division and will next season be playing in the Northern Premier Division One East, it is a brilliant achievement in which everyone at the club has thoroughly deserved.

Chairman Andrew Painten, Vice-Chairman Marcus Pound and Manager Richard Tracey have all given their reaction to being promoted to step four of the non-league football pyramid.

The Pewits have won the league with three games to spare. So far they have collected 81 points in 35 games with a positive goal difference of 68. Our latest win and the one that clinched promotion was a 5-0 victory over Goole AFC at the weekend.

On earning promotion Chairman Andrew Painten commented: “This achievement has been five years in the making and was the plan from when Richard Tracey was appointed and Steve Nicholson returned as assistant. To have hit that target despite the Covid-19 pandemic, despite being moved to the North West league for a season and despite all the other challenges football and life throw at us, it is a huge achievement. I’m immensely proud of everyone involved.

“The management and players all deserve their moment and I congratulate them for the promotion. The support of our sponsors is vital and of course, the backing of our fans, home and away, is important too.

“I would also like to pay tribute to all our volunteers off the field without whom we wouldn’t even be kicking a ball, never-mind winning the title.

“They are the lifeblood of the club and the foundations on which all the success is built. In particular, this promotion wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication and input of our Vice-Chairman Marcus Pound.

“Marcus came into the club at the same time as Richard and his involvement has been transformational and absolutely crucial to our success. We need more people like him to keep us at the next level and help us push on further so I hope this promotion truly puts the club back on the map and encourages new people with talent, ideas and energy to join our winning team.”

Echoing those thoughts, Marcus himself added: “This has been five years in the planning. The club took a new direction five years ago and the five year plan has been executed to perfection.

“Any club at any level is only as good as the people who run it and make it. We at Emley have a fantastic board of directors and team of volunteers.

“We will enjoy this moment for now, but we will then focus on the next five years. We had a plan and stuck to it and it's worked.”

Finally Manager Richard Tracey is delighted that his team has earned promotion and been crowned league champions.

He said: “I'm absolutely delighted, I've been involved in football for 40 years from starting out as a kid, and I've never won a league title as a player or manager, well until now anyway. They don't come around very often.

“I've been privileged enough to win a few cups in my career but this is a brilliant achievement to win a league.

“I'm so pleased that we've managed to do it, I'm really pleased for the whole club. We are a big non-league club that dropped to step seven in trying to come home.

“I'm really proud to have been part of helping the club get back to where it wanted to be.”

Looking ahead to what we may face in the league above Richard added: “Ultimately we want to go up and be competitive. We all know that the North East is a hotbed for football talent.

“There'll be a significant number of teams in that league from the North East and there'll also be a good chunk of local rivals with Ossett, Brighouse, Stocksbridge, and Liversedge all in there too.

“It'll be fantastic to get to play in those sorts of derby games. We just want to be competitive and establish ourselves in that league and then see where it takes us.”

Finally Tracey praised his team of staff and club volunteers in helping them reach their ambitions.

He said “Fundamentally I've got an amazing staff and that starts with Steve as Assistant Manager. Then we have Richard Batley and Ben Walker, who are our coaches who have done a brilliant job.

“We also have David Walsh and Chris Brown who are the two goalkeeping coaches who do it voluntarily. They go above and beyond with what they do for the club and they are outstanding. They are two gentlemen who we are really proud to have as part of our management team as well.

“Finally thanks to John Mason who is part of our backroom staff too. John has been a stalwart of Emley and I'm delighted that we can get over the line for him as well.

“I'd also like to thank Marcus, Andrew and the rest of the Club Board. They have done nothing but support us from day one, they have tried to give us everything that we needed to get to this point. So I can't thank them enough.”