New Garforth Town manager Adrian Costello (centre) with chairman Brian Close (left) and director Craig Bannister (right). Picture: Chris Mather
Adrian Costello has paid tribute to his loyal Garforth Town players who secured him an extraordinary victory in his managerial debut.
With just eleven players and no substitutes, Garforth cantered to a 5-0 win over Armthorpe Welfare in the West Riding County Cup.
It was a massive reward for everyone at the club, who had watched Graham Nicholas and six players walk out to Ossett Town in the previous two weeks.
The figure would have risen if talks between the respective chairmen hadn’t agreed a ceasefire.
The problem though did become larger when the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division clash with Parkgate last Saturday was postponed – rendering their brand new signings ineligible.
Fortunately Costello rallied round and gathered a team together and he said: “It was absolutely fantastic.
“The lads put in a shift as we had no substitutes because we had no more eligible players due to people leaving.
“The boys grafted and it was a fantastic performance. It could have been six or seven.
“Not in my wildest dreams did I think that we would 5-0, especially in my first match in Northern Counties East League management.
“It had been frantic (since I was appointed).
“We were getting players signed on for Saturday to get them eligible to play in the County Cup.
“The game then got called off and I was having to ring people who had initially left to get them back (for the County Cup).
“We had a team of eight at one point so it was frantic, but at least we got a happy ending.”
Now that the County Cup game is out of the way, Costello can now start properly rebuilding Garforth’s team.
More signings are planned, on top of the recruitment of Raul Fletcher, Nathan Kilby and Harry McMillan in the past seven days.
As for further departures to Ossett, Costello says that he “would hope not”.
On a different topic, Costello has admitted that he has been taken by surprise in terms of the level of interest in Garforth.
His notifications from Twitter have gone through the roof and he said: “I’ve never used Twitter really even though I have an account.
“I had about 34 followers before I was appointed and now I have over 150.
“I didn’t expect the interest in me on Twitter because last time I was involved in Non League football, social media was nowhere near what it is now.”
Weather-permitting, Garforth are due to visit local rivals Pontefract Collieries tomorrow.