Promotion-winning manager Brett Agnew believes Bridlington Town’s ascension back to the Northern Premier League for the first time since 2008 is an outstanding achievement.
Bridlington have claimed the third and final ‘upwardly movement’ spot behind Liversedge and Yorkshire Amateur as part of the FA’s restructuring and the Seasiders have applied to go up.
Brid’s combined points-per-game records for the ill-fated 2019/20 and 2020/21 campaigns placed them above Staveley Miners Welfare and Penistone Church and Agnew feels his side have punched above their weight for the majority of the last few years.
“We haven’t had a great budget, we haven’t had the real quality that you need to take the league by storm, but we’ve done it in our own way and 100% it is deserved,” Agnew told Non League Yorkshire.
“I think we have overachieved massively, especially with what we had in the first two seasons (2018/19 and 2019/20).
“Myself and (assistant manager Anthony Bowsley) Bows were on the (substitutes) bench for most of the season and we had three or four reserves lads playing and we had lads who had never played at that level before having stepped up from the Humber Premier League.
“But this season I thought we had a strong squad so I wouldn’t say this team overachieved this season.
“We seemed to get the right personnel in and we really kicked on and just before Christmas we won 4-1 at Goole AFC and beat Handsworth 9-1 and we were ready to push on.”
Brid’s promotion is also a personal triumph for Agnew whose playing career – aside from odd cameos – was curtailed by serious injury.
After Curtis Woodhouse departed in September 2018, Agnew was thrown in the Queensgate dugout as a rookie boss and he hasn’t disappointed in the role.
“It is brilliant (to be going up to the NPL) and it is what I set out to do and what I said I was going to do when I first got the job,” he said.
“People thought I was a bit mad because I hadn’t got any (management) experience.
“I always set out with a three-year-plan in anything I do – where do I want to be in three years – and I said I wanted to be in that league (the NPL).
“We’ve got there in basically two seasons.
“100% it is deserved. Even with the season just gone you’d have said fair play, but even in the season before we finished fifth (before it was curtailed) and that was my first season in charge.”
The method used to decide promotions did surprise a few as the FA chose to bring the expunged 2019/20 records back from the dead.
When that season was expunged, legal action to prevent that was led South Shields and the challenge ultimately failed. Now the records have been miraculously revived to facilitate the restructuring.
“I was quite shocked because I thought that (the 2019/20 season) was gone,” Agnew said.
“I was totally building for being at this level (Step 5) again next season.
“I thought it quite baffling that they brought it back out.
“But when you look at the top three sides – us, Ammers and Liversedge – we’ve all being consistently in the top five so I don’t think anyone can have any qualms with it.
“But maybe by the way it was brought back up they possibly could.”
Agnew is now preparing for taking Brid back into the NPL and when asked if players with Step Four experience are top of the wish-list, he said: “Experience is a great thing to have at that level, but it isn’t a massive priority for us.
“We need to find the right personnel with the right attitude that are going to fit into our plans and into our squad.
“I’m not going to bring people who are big-time and don’t want to do the travelling to away games on a Tuesday night.
“I want people who want to enjoy the journey and will fight in the same way the lads we have had for the last couple of years do.
“It is a great atmosphere in the dressing room and we all stay for a drink after a game and have a laugh with each other which is massive so we need (any new) guys to fit into that.
“We want winners and ultimately that’s what you need.
“You need people who don’t like losing. You need people with big hearts who are going to compete.”
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams. When we properly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.