Jubilant Simon Armstrong has hailed the “slow, steady and sustainable” business approach that has helped propel Ilkley Town into Non League Football.
Ilkley will be rubbing shoulders with the likes of reformed Bury AFC and the Isle of Man in the North West Counties League Division One North next season.
It is an exciting time for Ilkley, but the promotion is also the culmination of years of hard work which has built a “stable foundation” to enable the club to make the step up from the West Yorkshire League.
“What we’ve always recognised that unless you have a big money behind you it is always going to be a slow, steady and sustainable process,” first team manager Armstrong told Non League Yorkshire.
“That’s not going to change.
“What we will look to do is like we always do is look to develop and grow on-and-off-the-pitch as we go.
“We have done that to this point and hopefully we will continue to grow and progress.
“I think it is the way it should be done, obviously that’s my personal opinion and that’s one shared by the club and its members.
“I think in football there is a lot of impatience and short-term mentality.
“We don’t feel it is the way to go, it just means it is a much slower process.
“It has taken us eight years to get to this stage.
“People want to be there tomorrow and the way you do that is through money and finance to make it happen.
“I think you see that at every level of the game.
“We want to do something that is for the long-term and is sustainable.
“We want the football club with its infrastructure and its history to be there in 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years and stronger than ever. That’s our motivation.
“We have stable foundations and that’s the only way you can grow for the long term.”
The eight-year-long journey has seen Ilkley become a major community hub.
The club now has a 4G pitch which attracts hundreds of users each week and they also run numerous community projects on a daily basis.
All have helped establish the concrete infrastructure which has helped cement their place in the North West Counties.
During Armstrong’s first stint in charge, Ilkley were a lowly West Yorkshire League club and he admits that the level of opposition they will face next season is amazing.
“When I first started we just had a grass pitch and nothing more,” he said.
“We developed that facility and then put the 4G down.
“We’ve then been developing the facilities around that with changing rooms, refreshment kiosk, dugouts, covered stands and there’s plans for more.
“It is going to be a big sea change but it is something to look forward to.
“I can’t wait until we have 300 or 500 people in the ground against Bury or whoever and it is just going to be something special for all of us.
“It is a dream come true for me, the players and the whole club.
“It is just exciting.
“It is exciting for the players, exciting for the community, exciting for the club and everyone involved.
“We wanted to make the step up to play in games like against Bury.
“It is exciting for us to be able to announce the news and say we’ll be playing the likes of Bury AFC, Isle of Man along with local rivals Steeton and Campion.
“It is going to be a good fixture list.”
Armstrong and Ilkley discovered they had been promoted via Twitter at 3pm on Tuesday when the FA released the club allocations for the 2021/22 campaign.
“It was probably my best moment of the year,” he said.
“Only because we have waited such a long time and put such a lot of time in as a club.
“Obviously we put finance into the facilities to get us to the right standard so to get that place at Step 6 we feel it is a massive achievement, not just for the club, but for the community of Ilkley as well.
“I’ve said this all along, it has been a club effort.
“There’s been so many people involved and so many people supportive of it and we’re talking the men’s side, the women’s side, the juniors, the committee, the sponsors.
“Everyone has really contributed to where we are and it is important for us as a community club that we appreciate that and also never forget that.
“There was a sense of relief (after the news) because there was a little bit of uncertainty even though we felt confident we had done enough on-the-pitch and that the facilities are in the right place off-the-pitch.
“There was a little bit of trepidation that it might not happen.
“I think you always feel that it might not, especially with what they did with the season before when they null and voided everything.
“When they changed the wording and said ‘curtailed’ I think it put a different slant on it.
“Personally I felt they were doing it for a reason.
“As a club we also felt the FA wouldn’t want the infrastructure to stagnate and if they hadn’t done the changes it would have been another season with all the same teams in the same leagues with no movement.
“I don’t think that would have been the right way to go and I’m really pleased they went ahead with the restructure. Obviously we benefit massively, but I think the whole of the Non League Football structure benefits from those changes.”
With the confirmation of promotion and prospective players already contacting him, Armstrong’s attention has turned to preparing for life in Step 6.
Although he is wanting to make some new signings, what he is “confident” of is that his current squad is capable of making the climb.
“I think it will be a step-up,” he said.
“Obviously there is a step-up in quality and there’s more distances to travel so there’s a number of challenges for us.
“I think the group we have got at the moment would be competitive at Step 6.
“I’m confident in that group.
“Obviously we want to add four or five new faces because we like to freshen it up and increase competition for places and increase the level of quality within the group.
“Like I say we’re more than confident with the group we have got we’ll step up and be ok.
“But obviously we want to improve as best as we can and give ourselves the best opportunity at the new level.”
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