Ten years ago Craig Elliott was spearheading Glasshoughton Welfare’s fairytale promotion from Division One of the Northern Counties East League.
Their second place finish – sealed by a last minute goal during the final game of the pulsating 2011/12 campaign – brought a close to a magical period which is seen as Glasshoughton’s greatest era.
It was also the first Non League promotion for former Shaw Lane manager Elliott, the most successful Yorkshire-based Non League manager of the last 20 years with two titles, two automatic promotions, two cup wins, two play-off final appearances, multiple runs to the FA Cup first and second rounds and one FA Vase quarter-final to his name.
The promotion with Glasshoughton is a lesser remembered triumph but it is a special one for Elliott, whose recent exit from National North side Boston United stunned many.
“(The 2012 promotion) is right up because (as my first) it is the one that (gave me) the enthusiasm and hunger to be a manager,” Elliott tells Non League Yorkshire.
“Sometimes you fall into management and you’re not sure where it is going to take you but getting that promotion made me want to get more and be more successful.
“It is definitely one of the best.
“As well I have been labelled as someone who has good budgets but we had next to nothing at Glasshoughton so it was a good achievement.”
He was only in charge at Leeds Road for literally two seasons but where Glasshoughton followers are concerned, Elliott is God.
He is their greatest manager and only Wayne Day and John Brown come close to him.
Following successful spells managing Pontefract Collieries Reserves and then West Yorkshire League side Kellingley, Elliott was appointed as Glasshoughton’s manager in July 2010 after Stuart Waddington left for Liversedge.
The former Welfare striker whose dad Ged had managed them in 2000, inherited a team two weeks before the 2010/11 season began and turned them into heavyweights inside a year.
To put into context, the transformation was huge – this was a club which two years earlier had gone 53 games without a win.
Although his reign began in nightmare fashion on the opening day of the 2010/11 campaign, the seeds for success were sown.
“We had Handsworth in my first game and they were the top team with a good crowd and good budget,” he says.
“It was their first game in the NCEL and I didn’t know what to expect as it was first game at that level and I didn’t have my players in so I was going into the unknown.
“We got beat 4-0 and I was thinking ‘am I good enough myself for this’?
“It was an horrendous game for us.
“But I got my head down and got my head round the league and slowly started putting the jigsaw together in terms of players and recruiting the spine of the team.
“(The Handsworth) game gave us a benchmark in terms of where we needed to be at to be a top team and to get promoted at that level.”
Wins soon started becoming more frequent and in his first season Glasshoughton finished seventh – qualifying for the FA Cup for the first time in years – and they also won the Wilkinson Sword Trophy.
Elliott says the mindset at the club changed.
“I think (the expectations) were just to survive,” he says.
“I took over and they hadn’t won any games two seasons earlier so it was a matter of surviving in that league.
“They had been near the bottom so from that point of view there was never an expectation for me to get promotion.
“I think that was the last thing on the club’s mind.
“I think as well the committee may have had some doubts about me as I was young and I had never managed at that level.
“I knew some of them personally from when I was a young lad so they were a bit undecided about me.
“I think it was a matter of convincing them that we could do this and every game we won the confidence grew, not just in the players, but the committee and club as well.
“You could see the enthusiasm and the drive around the place.
“It was so nice to see everyone so happy around the club and with it being my local club it meant a bit more as well.”
The arrival of former Pontefract Collieries manager Simon Houghton and his assistant Darren Smith on the management team in the summer of 2012 strengthened his hand.
“I had some really people around me in Simon, Daz, John Bailey, Sam (Crawford), they were brilliant,” he says.
“You don’t get promotion on the basis of good players and manager, it is very much a team effort – everybody fighting for the same cause and that’s what we had that season.”
Although some of the signings and management appointments were eye-catching, Glasshoughton were not seen as real contenders from outsiders.
Handsworth, Worksop Parramore, Albion Sports, Pontefract Collieries and Emley were all seen have bigger financial power and all expected to succeed above them.
Welfare were certainly the underdogs.
“From my own point of view I wanted to get promoted,” Elliott says.
“I felt confident in myself and I had built up a lot of confidence in that I felt I could build a competitive team.
“Winning that Wilkinson Sword Trophy was big because it brought success.
“You’re right, in the back of my head I was thinking there was three or four teams who financially can do better than us.
“On paper (with the wealth of other clubs) we shouldn’t have finished where we did.
“Teams like Pontefract under Brendan Ormsby, probably should have done better.
“But momentum was a big thing.
“We signed players at the right time and we got confidence in the group at the right time.
“Even though we had a little wobble (towards the end), we had a really good team spirit and some leaders in there that you need for key matches when you’re trying to win promotions.
“We had a good skipper in Andy Seed but people like Paul Sykes and Alex Booth were proper leaders.
“With crowds, Glasshoughton weren’t massively supported but I just knew with a few key players we were bringing in we could surprise a few.
“We had some good forwards.
“Liam Radford was a big one – he gave us that cutting edge upfront and started the season scoring goals.
“As we went through the season I relied on a few favours and I managed to call on some contacts to bring in some key players – people like Sykesy (Paul Sykes), (Carl) Fothergill, Anthony Lloyd, Andy Catton, Lee Bennett, all who had played at a higher level.”
Glasshoughton set off like an express train, staying until unbeaten in the league until mid-October – despite a poor disciplinary record!
As the season headed towards April, second spot was the more realistic target but a midweek 4-0 defeat to Rossington Main left them needing to win all their final four games to stand a chance of promotion.
They dispatched eventual Handsworth in the first match before Andy Catton scored six as Grimsby Borough were hammered 9-1.
That led to a win-or-bust Friday night trip to Handsworth, who could win the title with victory, in the second to last game of the season.
What a night that was.
“The Handsworth game was a massive one,” Elliott says.
“It sounds a bit weird but remembering that 4-0 loss and then going back and beating them with ten men for 80 minutes, I think it was a huge moment for us.
“In effect, that win got us promoted if I’m totally honest.
“It was do-or-die for us that night and I said that going into it.
“Chris Hitchings got sent off after ten minutes and you’re thinking ‘oh no’.
“But we had some big players and I think Carl Fothergill played well that night and Paul Sykes in particular was immense.
“Josh Corbett, who was a great player for me, scored an unbelievable goal in the last minute and it gave us that kick we needed to go on and win promotion.”
With leaders Handsworth playing second placed Worksop on the final day in a winner takes all encounter, Glasshoughton knew victory at Emley would send them up regardless of events elsewhere.
But they didn’t make it easy for themselves as Emley led 2-0 on the hour mark.
They pulled one back and the introduction of former Barnsley striker Steve Bennett changed the game and he scored twice in the final five minutes to seal a fairytale 3-2 win.
“It was an entertaining season which culminated in that unbelievable game at Emley,” Elliott says.
“There were incredible scenes that day.
“You couldn’t have wrote it any better in terms of how to get promoted.
“I remember winning the (NPL Division One South) league at Shaw Lane and finding out in the car because Witton had points deducted.
“That was a bit of an anti-climax but winning promotion on the final day of the season in the dying minutes is incredible stuff.
“You’d want that to happen every season.”
The promotion raised Elliott’s profile and within two weeks he was appointed as the new Ossett Town manager.
Glasshoughton were unable to push on and within three years they were relegated back to Division One after struggling to financially compete in the NCEL Premier Division.
As it stands, Glasshoughton will finish in the bottom half of Division One for the third time in five completed seasons.
The only time they have come close to winning promotion back to the Premier was in 2018 and Elliott feels for his former club.
“I think the legacy (from 2012) is more in memories,” he says.
“I left because I didn’t feel I could take them any further.
“If I had felt we could have gone on and had three-or-four-years of success, I would have stayed.
“I’ve not moved around much during my career.
“But I looked around the place and the budget was really low and it wasn’t going to change which was fair enough.
“Unfortunately the NCEL Division One is probably where they are at unless someone comes in and backs them.
“It is difficult to watch when you see your old team (where they are).
“But it is where they are unfortunately.
“They have never had big budgets or big crowds so it is always difficult to keep up with the rest of the teams who have got a bit more.”
Whichever club is lucky to get Elliott as their next manager have someone who has changed fortunes for the better.
He was successful at Ossett, he was outstanding at Shaw Lane and he turned Boston around and created fantastic memories for everyone involved there.
Considering they were in the play-offs when he was let go, he could not have done much more and Elliott looks back at his Boston reign with pride.
“The big thing is I raised expectations,” he says.
“They were second bottom when I took over and we were always in the play-offs positions while I was there.
“There are two things that will haunt me.
“One is the play-off final and it was one of the first games to be played without crowds.
“Nothing happened in the game apart from one massive mistake.
“You look at Altrincham now and think ‘what if’?
“We were one mistake away from being in the National League.
“But that’s football and it is such fine margins.
“It is the same with the FA Cup, we gave away a late penalty and could have potentially played Newcastle so there’s a couple of big moments that slipped through our fingers.
“All the same, I’m quite proud of where I left them and what I did there.”
Clearly there’s going to be more chapters about success to write in the near future.
“I’ve had an unbelievable ten plus years of managing and I’m really proud of the journey,” he says.
“It is obviously going to continue.
“I have put a lot of hard work but I’m looking forward to the next challenge.
“I’m proud I have stayed at clubs and been loyal and had continued success in most seasons.
“Hopefully that continues.
“Every club I have managed I have left them in a far better position, I think that’s the secret to management really.”
For now he enjoying a breather for the first time in years.
“It the first break I’ve had for many years,” he adds.
“My wife was saying this, my daughter is 13 and I’ve managed since she was born.
“She’s not known any different so it has been a strange few weeks but I’m going to take my time and make sure the challenge is right.
“It is not necessarily about the level or finance, it has got to feel like a good project and that’s what I’ve tried to do at every club.”
You will always be welcome and remembered at boston Craig. all the best at the next club you manage. Wish you all the best.