GRANT BLACK performed miracles at Ossett Town as he saved them from relegation and steered them to the NPL Division One North play-off final within just 14 unforgettable months.
The Ingfielders were hurtling towards the NCEL when Buxton great Black was handed his first managerial post in February 2016. Ossett had lost nine consecutive league games, but Black basically brought in a brand new team, won his first game at Burscough and guided them to safety with a few games to spare.
The 2016/17 campaign defied the imagination. Black was walking on water as despite limited resources Ossett reached the play-off final against Farsley Celtic. Danny Frost even scored a goal two minutes from time to put Ossett 2-1 up and on the brink of a previously unthinkable promotion. The dream lasted a matter of minutes as Farsley equalised and won it in extra-time.
In the latest ‘My Greatest Game’, Frost, the perennial hero of that team, looks back at the final and the whirlwind opening 14 months of the now Belper Town boss Grant’s Ossett reign.
NPL Division One North Play-Off Final
Farsley Celtic (Clayton 47, Marshall 90, Watson 110, Walshaw 112) 4-2 (AET) Ossett Town (Frost 70, 87) – Saturday 29th April 2017
The Teams
Farsley Celtic: McKibbin, Hardy (captain), Chris Howarth, Peter Davidson (Daly 43), Clayton, Savory, Nightingale, Marshall, Walshaw, Deacey (Watson 80), Walker (Atkinson 96). Subs unused: Turner, Morgan.
Ossett Town: Overton, Hawksworth, Jackson, Yates, Gay, Assenso (Riley 91), Pembleton, Peterson (captain) (Lucas 63), Frost (Mackie 90+3), Curtis. Subs unused: Paylor, Wright.
Referee: Andrew Sykes
Attendance: 829
“I remember jumping on a bus to Burscough who I think were doing well, and it being the weirdest game ever. Alex Peterson got on the bus and I thought he was the goalie. I didn’t realise he was the striker he’d (Grant Black) signed. I was sat next to Jack Wakefield and it was a freezing bus, never one talked, the fans were all morbid and it wasn’t nice.
“We got in the changing room and we tried to make light of it, but the warm-up was quiet. I was thinking ‘oh god, what am I doing here’. But as soon as the whistle it was totally different. We did go 1-0 down after five minutes and I did think it was going to be a nightmare, but I managed to get one back and we won 2-1. It was brilliant. The club hadn’t won for ages and everyone was writing them off so to get out of the situation like we did was a great achievement. We ended up finishing quite high up the table at the end of the season.
“Prior to the start of the next season it was just a case of go out and carry on like we ended the previous season. But because there had been a big turnover of players, it did take time for us to gel. We were up and down and I remember us losing to Ossett Albion in the derby. Play-offs had been mentioned, but I don’t think anyone took it seriously. Then all of a sudden from October, everything just clicked. We got into a great run and we found that other teams were tripping each other up. We kept slowly and quietly going about our business and we were top at Christmas. The play-offs shouts were really starting to come.
“There were a few blips, but the best thing about that side was the character and the desire. It wasn’t about whether we were playing well, it was about working our socks off and if you didn’t you only had Mick Norbury and Blackie shouting and bawling at you. Blackie was very ruthless that season. If things weren’t working after 20 minutes, he’d change it. That’s why he has gone onto do well at Belper. You have to be ruthless to be successful and I definitely see him moving up the leagues like Craig Elliott has. He’s still young now, he’s young enough still to be play. That was an unbelievable first year for Blackie in management, it was almost like he couldn’t do anything wrong.
“The day he got the job, as daft as it sounds I was in my local cricket club and he came in with a shirt and tie on and I thought he had been at a christening. I asked him where he’d been and he said ‘interview’. So he went onto tell me that it was at Ossett Town. He was waiting to hear back and he got the job while we were in the cricket club. So he told me he wanted me straightaway and that was that.
“We always played in the opposition’s half and as daft as it sounds we had two full-backs who could throw it 60 yards. First of all it always ‘go and play in their half’. Although when we played on a decent pitch we could get the ball down and play. We were a side that could do the ugly and the nice, but what we had was a big team, not including myself. The full-backs could throw it 60 yards so everybody was chucked into the box. You had Tyrone Gay coming up. There was Yatesy (Jason Yates), Alex Peterson, big lads and all I had to do was feed off the bits. It worked effectively and there was no-one in our league who could do that. I think what we did well was that we always stayed in games and wore teams down towards the end. We’d pile everybody into the box and the other team would be tired out. We were a lot fitter and stronger than everybody else.
“Ossett’s fanbase really built up over that season. They were called the Barmy Army. It was really noticeable in those two Farsley games. The drums started coming out. Compared to a year before, fans were just rocking up for a day out, not expecting us to win. There wasn’t many at all and it built up to the fans having their own bus. You were looking at over 100 fans coming to away games which was unheard of. It built up at home too and there’s nothing better than celebrating and getting ale chucked all over you. It was brilliantly run club by people like James Rogers and Lee Broadbent. Even to this day I get messages asking how I am? Usually you get one, but no-one was negative after a game that season, even when we lost. It was always ‘get your head back up and go again’. The players, the fans and the committee had a great bond.
“We beat Farsley two weeks before the play-off final at their place and that win helped get us in the play-offs. Martin Pembleton scored twice. We needed to win and get a point against Trafford so it was a must-win game. We knew we weren’t going to go up automatically. We had nothing to lose. Farsley did because they could have won the title that day. We went hell for leather for it. It was a very tactical and professional performance. We stopped them from playing, we sat in and caught them on the break. We were very good at soaking up pressure and capitalising. We did it twice in that game.
“We got to the play-offs and I think everyone wrote us off again when we got Scarborough away. There was over 1000 there and we won.
“We were confident going into the play-off final because we had beaten them twice. Blackie was very emotional. He was ‘look lads you’re punching above your stripes, but you deserve to be here for you’ve done’. We didn’t actually play that well in the final, we had a lot more to give. It was a nervy and edgy game which it is going to be in a final. The pitch was rock hard and they couldn’t play their game-plan because they liked to play football. We couldn’t really get into it and when we changed a few things in the second half we started to go again. We looked like our normal lively selves.
“Farsley were the better side in the first half and they went ahead two minutes into the second half. Blackie brought Alex off and put Pembo up top with me and we started going down the sides of them and got loads of joy. We started to stretch them. The first goal came from a cross and the Farsley defender didn’t get a clean connection on it and I ran onto it and hit it with outside of my right foot and it trickled. Their goalkeeper had a worldie that day too.
“The second goal came on from a ball got clipped over the top and went into the channel and it bounced up nicely for me. I lobbed the ‘keeper’ and I don’t know if you’ve seen the pictures but it was the best feeling ever. The barmy army was behind the goal. They were chucking pints everywhere and I saw my dad on the right-hand-side and I ran over and hugged him. It was a big pile-on and we thought we had done it because there was only two minutes left. My dad has never said it was one of his proudest moments, but I reckon it was. My son was also there which was nice.
“But they equalised and that forced extra-time. I pulled up in extra-time with my hamstring so I had to come off. It was a devastating finish, but when you consider that Farsley’s budget was three times as much to take them as far as we did was an unbelievable achievement. We had massively overachieved. People talk about budgets and we had a budget of probably about £800. Now in this day and age that is a very small budget for NPL Division One side, especially at the time when you had all them Manchester sides. We were top at Christmas and it barmy. It was my best season by far to be honest. If I’ve got any regrets, it is probably leaving Ossett. There were reasons for that, but it has been up and down since then.”
Danny Frost was interviewed by James Grayson.