Otley Town manager Chris Peachey (right)
Chris Peachey admits that he and Otley Town have set their sights on challenging for a place in the Toolstation NCEL in the next few years.
However, that’s a few years away. The current phase of Peachey’s grand plan is to get Otley back into the West Yorkshire League Premier Division.
“As a manager myself, I am very ambitious and we are fortunate to have a group of players who have played at various levels higher up than where we are,” Peachey told Non League Yorkshire.
“The club have got ambitions too of moving forward so I think the future is looking bright for Otley.
“The plan is first and foremost to get out of Division One as soon as we can and get back into the Premier Division where Otley Town were a couple of seasons back.
“The plan is then to build from there. Look to get established and maybe look at the NCEL. Personally the NCEL is where I want to go as a manager. That’s where I want to be and Otley Town are matching that ambition at this moment in time.”
Peachey is rated as one of the most promising young managers in the West Yorkshire League.
He started out in management after forming successful Sunday League side AFC Horsforth in 2012 after injury curtailed his playing career.
His success with Horsforth attracted struggling Otley last year. Otley had suffered back-to-back relegations from the Premier Division to Division Two of the West Yorkshire League.
Peachey led them back to Division One at the first attempt, and he says whilst the ambition is win promotion this season, it won’t be easy.
“We are looking to bounce into the Premier Division at the first time of asking, but it is a big ask this season,” he said.
“We are aiming to do it this season. It isn’t going to be a failure if we don’t though.
“One of our rivals for promotion is actually one of our geographical rivals Pool who are just down the valley.
“There is a lot of teams who cry out about their ambitions to get back into the Premier Division and some of them are only couple of signings away from challenging.”
Otley will certainly be super fit when they kick off their league campaign at Howden Clough on August 11th as Peachey has put his players through a gruelling pre-season campaign, which has included tough fixtures with Step Six opposition in Selby Town and Steeton.
“It was our second pre-season friendly and I thought the lads put in a good showing of themselves,” he said, speaking after the 3-1 defeat at Selby.
“There are some things that need to be worked on such as being more assured on the ball. But going to Selby who are a well-established side and been in the NCEL for a long time, our lads gave a good account of themselves.
“Games against the likes of Selby are good for the season. We have purposely set-up a difficult pre-season. We are playing Premier Division opponents from the West Yorkshire League, along with Selby and Steeton.
“We are going to have to work hard in every match and that’s what we want.”