Excited Roy Mason is preparing for glitz and glamour as Steeton head to face Bury AFC in the newly-formed club’s first competitive league fixture.
The North Counties West League starts this weekend and Steeton have claimed the prestigious title of being Bury’s first league opponents.
The Keighley-based outfit face an almighty challenge against a side who now have Bradford (Park Avenue) legend Tom Greaves in their ranks.
Mason, speaking before Greaves’ move to Bury, admits he’s chuffed at facing Andy Welch’s side and says he’s hopeful Steeton will have a positive campaign.
“Like any manager would say, you’re aiming to finish as high as you can,” Mason told Non League Yorkshire.
“We’ve not set any goals for the players. Certainly as a club we can’t be putting ourselves in the position where we were last year where we were teetering around the bottom all season.
“We’re quietly confident we can have a good season. For us it is about progression and doing it in the right way. This league is close and anybody can beat anyone and if we can get on a good roll and get some results, we’ll get a bit of confidence and I think we can shock a few teams.
“Obviously if you look at the fixtures, they’ve thrown us two very tough starters. It couldn’t have been a better (opening day) fixture for us because if they’ve said ‘which fixture would you like’, we’ve have said Bury away.
“That’s because of all the hype and the media attention that’s going to be around Bury. It is going to be fantastic for us as a club to be involved in something like that.
“It is going to be a great occasion for them and I might have to get my best suit out. The players are excited for it and there’s a buzz. If you can’t get yourselves up for a game like Bury then you’ve no chance.
“It is going to be a massively tough start and then we’ve got to go to Golcar and their signings have been very astute and they’ll be a strong side.”
Steeton were second bottom of the Division One North table when last season was expunged.
The club were also besieged by off-the-field problems which have led to the positive move to Marley Stadium.
Mason fielded a young side as well, but for the new season Steeton supporters will see more experience in their team, with Thackley legend Jerry White, who joined last season, and former Yorkshire Amateur and Worsbrough Bridge man Luke Hammond among the older and wiser heads.
“It was probably the worst season I’ve had as a manager,” he said.
“It wasn’t just the results on-the-field which were a nightmare, it was the events going off-the-pitch with obviously given notice at Cougar Park and then having to try and find somewhere.
“We lost members of the backroom staff and we had a too high turnover of players. Everything that could have gone against us went again us. If it wasn’t for bad luck we’d have no luck at all.
“I felt last season we needed to bring in experience in certain areas and bring in lads with experience of playing at this level and higher as opposed to lads looking to step up.
“What did us last year sometimes was our lack of experience and as a consequence a lack of game management, not lack of ability. You need that experience of knowing when to slow the game down, when to speed it up.
“Jerry has been absolutely fantastic since he’s come in. He’s a leader and a leader in the dressing room as well as on the pitch and the lads look up to Jerry because he’s seen it and done it. His experience has been invaluable to the young players.
“Luke, let’s say has had a hit-and-miss pre-season as he’s not been available as much as he and I would liked to have been. He’s another one (who is experienced) and he can play in midfield or at full-back and at this level it is always good to have players who can play in a couple of positions.
“We’ve got Tim Hird who has been with us for the best part of ten years. He’s the club captain and he has been magnificent for us. There’s other signings like James Wolfenden and James Townsend who have both joined us from Nelson and they’ll be good signings for us.”
The North West Counties could be the last league in the country to be starting, but that’s understandable because of the restrictions in nearly all the areas that the league covers.
In their wisdom, the FA placed the Isle of Man in the South Division, but they can’t start the campaign because of the restrictions on the island. Quite how they will even play fixtures is good question?
But looking across Liverpool, Manchester and even Kirklees, those areas are subject to rules tight lockdown rules and advice and Mason agrees it looks strange to outsiders that Non League clubs can play with spectators allowed to attend fixtures.
“It is typical of what is going on in the country and all these mixed messages,” he said.
“It is no wonder people are feeling a bit bemused by a lot of the things going on. We have been promoting things like season tickets on social media and we’ve had people questioning how we can sell them when you’re not allowed to have a gathering of six or more?
“Then trying to tell people because of the FA guidelines that we’re allowed 300 people in, people are like ‘what I can’t see my mother in my back garden, but yet I can watch a game with 300 spectators in’. It all seems bizarre.”
He added: “Every other league has started. I think the North West Counties have done everything in the right way. They’ve listened to their member clubs and taken on-board their concerns and obviously they’re adhering to the Government guidelines.
“I think it is right we start on Saturday and let’s give it a go. You know my concerns and I’ve voiced my concerns quite openly. I think it is going to be very stop-start. You only have to look at the professional game and Bradford City’s games with (Leyton) Orient and Grimsby which are both off now. There was severe doubt over whether the Stevenage game would take place too after one of their players tested positive.
“It is all levels. We already have one game in our league – Garstang versus Bacup – which has already been postponed as a Garstang player has tested positive for Covid. Any team would be naive to think they won’t be affected by it at some point.”
Although now happy to start the campaign, Mason has been a fervent critic of playing a full-season because of the many challenges and he has highlighted two more.
“Even travelling is an issue,” he said.
“All of our lads have to make their own way to Bury which isn’t easy. Some of the younger lads are in a position where they may have to get one of their parents to actually take them to Bury. But the parent can’t get in the ground because it is a sell-out so there’s other things that come into place that people don’t think about.
“An interesting thing which not many people have touched on is from a social-distancing point of view; we’ve now into October and traditionally the weather takes a turn for the worse.
“We start getting wet weather and it is not a case of games getting called off which need to be fitted in. What’s going to happen on a wet day if you have 300 people spectators?
“Are they all going to social-distance and stand in the open air and get wet? Or are they all going to try and congregate in a stand that only seats 50 people?”
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams. As we slowly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
Like most organisations, we have been affected financially by the Coronavirus and because of the cancelled Lucille Rollinson Memorial Tournament, we are down on projected income for the year and we have incurred losses in the last few months.
We have not been hit as badly as other organisations, but we do need raise £2000 to put us back at the level we were at in mid-March and enable us to make a difference once again to our players’ lives in the future, without having financial worries. Several of our players are suffering from effects of the lockdown and we are determined to be in the strongest position possible to provide services for them.
Any amount raised above £2000 will be put towards new projects (when the world returns to normal) designed to further benefit people with disabilities and learning difficulties. You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.
