North West Counties League First Division North
Good news follows the Town of Ilkley around at the moment.
Following on from the picturesque location winning The Times’ best places to live in the UK 2022, their football team Ilkley Town secured their Step 6 status for a second season.
It took a last day win over AFC Blackpool to ensure they weren’t a one-hit wonder.
Now Sam Dexter is looking to push on next season.
“Fingers crossed we will hang onto the players and we also want to bring one-or-two as it is really important to keep things fresh,” Dexter told Non League Yorkshire.
“I think we’ll have more of an idea at the end of pre-season of what we are capable of.
“We just want to improve.
“The last thing I want is a season like we’ve had.
“The way I’d sum it up is a complete rollercoaster from start to finish.
“We lost our first five games and covid decimated our squad at the beginning of the season.
“We couldn’t get the same back four together, never mind the same eleven because lads were getting pinged off the app.
“We had a good run of form over Christmas, we have had a change in manager and then another good run in the second half of the season.
“In my eyes we should want to be more consistent.
“We have had a year’s experience in the league and the goal is to build on what we have achieved this year.”
Ilkley certainly left their survival late.
Had they lost to Blackpool then they would have been condemned to a bottom three finish.
“I think it was a relief,” Dexter said.
“We had to win the last game of the season and it was in our hands.
“But it is a good job we did win as results went against us if we had dropped points.
“The overriding emotion is relief but from my perspective I’m a little disappointed we hadn’t secured our status sooner.
“If you finish in the bottom three there’s guarantees that you will go down – clubs in the past have had reprieves – but we didn’t want to find ourselves in that position.
“We wanted to earn the right to stay in the Division and we’re delighted to have done.”
Whilst a last day relegation scrap does not look good, Dexter highlights that Ilkley’s final points total is actually a good haul in a normal season.
“We have finished on 40 points and that’s a good achievement,” he said.
“That league is such a funny league in the sense that anyone can beat anyone.
“Without the exception of Bury which you would expect, we haven’t been played off the pitch by any team.
“Every game we have played has been really competitive.
“I think we have lost 15 or 16 games this year by one goal.
“Look at Campion, they finished below us on goals difference and they are a well-established Non League side.
“I think we have done ever so well to accumulate the points total we did and in another year we could have finished a lot higher than we did.”