Yorkshire Amateur’s perfect start to the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division season is down to a squad effort, according to joint manager Craig Ogilvie.
The Ammers have shot out of the traps brilliantly with five league wins out of five – taking advantage of playing more league games than their expected promotion rivals.
But instead of choosing a consistent starting line-up, the Ammers have utilised their whole squad for the busy run of fixtures and Ogilvie takes his hat off to his and Neil Sibson’s players.
“It is very hard to pick the team,” Ogilvie told Non League Yorkshire.
“We are lucky that we have a full group of lads who are all on board with what we’re trying to do and that’s to try and win the league.
“We made four changes for Saturday’s game (against Athersley). We’re in a such good position from mine and Neil’s perspective that we have 16 lads that are all good enough to play in all teams in this league.
“In my opinion you win leagues with a squad and that’s what they have bought into. Saturday’s game was our fifth game in 15 games, but we’re not complaining. We’re lucky to have a good squad where we can use everyone and keep everyone fresh at the same time.
“We never weaken our side in our opinion because the players in the squad are such good quality. Myself and Neil have said it to the lads. We don’t see it as chopping and changing, it is just rotation and like for like. We’ve no injuries apart from Luke Dean who picked up an injury in the Bridlington game so he may be out for a few weeks.
“Maybe in previous seasons where we have had to rely on certain people to play all the time, we don’t have to do that now. We also mentioned it on Saturday that it is the best camaraderie that I’ve seen in a long time.
“They are a great bunch and it is a very win together, lose together mentality. Over the last five games we’ve had nine or ten goals where the substitutes have been involved either by scoring or involved in the set-up of them.
“They’re taking on board and we’re finishing games strong and we’re scoring late in the games as well which is a good sign that fitness levels are good and that the substitutes are performing when they come on.”
The Ammers want to win promotion to the Northern Premier League for the first time and they have already set a high bar for the rivals.
The Leeds-based side have scored 20 times in their five league fixtures and Ogilvie admits you cannot really pick fault with the wins over AFC Mansfield, Bottesford, Silsden, Bridlington Town and Athersley Rec. He also agrees that given the uncertainty in the world, the early points total is hugely important.
“Certainly the first four have been up to the standard of what we have been wanting the performances to be,” he said.
“The lads have taken on board on how we want to play and that kind of identity of how we want to play has definitely come to fruition.
“Our last game against Athersley; they were tough conditions for both sides. It was a heavy pitch and the rain was coming down and we probably didn’t play to our best, but one average performance out of five you can’t really complain.
“On the whole there is still things we need to improve on, but we can’t be moaning. We have played five and won five. If we started to complain people would think we were crackers.
“If you were grading us you’d probably give us a B. We still have things we have to work on, but we’re more than happy with where we’re at. We’ve played five, won five and we’re sat top. We’ve played more games than other teams, but we have points on the board.
“Some games we have missed chances and we could have made it more convincing. We’re not carried away because we are only five games in. We need to keep our feet on the ground with a very tough October to come.
“We’re only taking one game at a time. What we’re saying to the lads is let’s accumulate as many points as early as we can. In the background there is the nagging voice that says it may get cut short because no-one know what’s around the corner.
“When we looked at the fixtures and with knowing we were out of the FA Cup and we weren’t in the FA Vase until later, we knew we’d have a head start of other teams.
“Our mindset was that we knew it was important to get the wins on the board and open up a bit of a gap – albeit teams have games to play. All be it, we’d rather be in front than be chasing.”
The Ammers are next in action against Albion Sports on Wednesday night at Throstle Nest. Albion have a brand new squad and Ogilvie is impressed with Ishy Hussain and Pav Singh’s recruitment.
“They have made some very shrewd signings and I’m pleased for them,” he said.
“Albion are a club I like. I hope they have some good success this year apart from the two games against us.
“They’ve signed Sam Bradley from Eccleshill and they’ve a few lads from the Eccleshill old days. Niall Heaton was with us last season and he’s signed there and he’s a fantastic defender.
“Declan Lambton in goal, I had for a couple of games at Harrogate Railway and I know he’s a superb goalkeeper. They have a good side and they’ll take points off teams this year. I just hope it is not from us.”
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.