Richard Tracey (right) and his assistant Eric Gilchrist (left) have put smiles back on the faces of Ossett Albion supporters. Picture: John Hirst
Richard Tracey hopes Ossett Albion have lost the perennial strugglers tag and are starting to see a reward for their efforts.
Albion finish 2014 in 17th place with 23 points in the bag and well away from the relegation spots – 12 months on from when they were bottom and facing relegation.
A reprieve granted Albion a second chance in May and Tracey and his team have grasped it with both hands.
The Albion boss now hopes the corner has been totally turned.
“With the club in the position it was when we took over, it was always going to be a long job,” Tracey, who took charge at Albion in March 2013 told Non League Yorkshire.
“We don’t have the money to do a quick fix and bring players in. We have had to persuade players to come and join us and also had to dig a bit deeper as a club.
“With the players we have brought in, Connor Bower has scored six in six, Luke Sharry adds a different dimension to us and manages the game better for us.
“That in turns gets a better performance out of the other players as well so although it has been a long slog, we are starting to see the fruits of our labor.
“We should have got something at Droylsden when we were 3-1 up. It was a great result against Spennymoor and then we got a 3-0 derby victory away from home.
“It has been tough. We believe in what we are trying to do, but it is like we have always had one hand up our back.
“We have worked it out in own minds that we probably have the lowest budget in the league and if you drop a league there is probably seven or eight teams with bigger budgets.
“We have had to work really hard with the players we have got and worked really hard to get the calibre of players in that we want.
“We got Danny South in and then he went off to play for Goole after 20 minutes and a three-game suspension.
“That was disappointing, but what we have upfront is some genuine pace with Connor Bower and we need to make sure we can keep him as long as possible.”
The spectacular 3-0 win at arch rivals Ossett Town on Boxing Day was a marker of their progress.
Weather permitting, Albion will host strugglers New Mills on New Year’s Day and Tracey added: “We’re not out of the woods yet and first and foremost for us is that we need to get safe.
“We have News Mills on New Year’s Day and then Harrogate Railway. Billy (Miller) has done an amazing job there and it will be good to catch up with them.
“Hopefully we can get a result against a team doing really well.
“Everybody bodes well and I’m hoping we can kick on now.
“The reality is that we are going to come up against some tough teams, but I really believe we can compete with them teams in and around us and we can win more games than we can lose.”
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