Toolstation NCEL Division One Play-Off Final
Chris Bolder has paid tribute to the club’s volunteers and supporters as North Ferriby bid to end years of hurt this afternoon.
Ferriby host Harrogate Railway in the showpiece play-off final and victory will provide the reformed club with their first promotion – three years after the old club’s tragic demise.
“(The volunteers) have invested so much of their own time and energy to rebuild the football club from nothing,” Bolder told Non League Yorkshire.
“It was picked up with no players signed and lots of hidden problems that presented themselves to the chairman (Les Hare) and board once they took over.
“Now when people visit the football club, they see the feel-good factor.
“There’s a real buzz again and there’s the nice community feel where spectators and officials from other clubs enjoy their visit to North Ferriby.
“Everything is in place for the football club to climb up the leagues again.
“We have to make sure we get the performances right on-the-pitch.
“Everything behind the scenes is ready for us to progress back to where the old club plying its trade.
“It has been many years since the last success because the club was in free-fall.
“It has been disappointment after disappointment with on-field things being dictated by off-field things.
“Our supporters have stuck by the club and I think they have been magnificent.
“The followings we have taken to away games this year has been special.
“Our home attendances have surpassed recent years.”
Ferriby meet a Railway side who are a different animal to the one they faced in August.
Ferriby smashed them 6-0 on that particular evening.
Bolder says time has moved on and he expects his side to face a tough test.
“When we played them earlier in the season they were still looking for their best formula with their shape and players,” he said.
“We probably caught them at a good time from our perspective.
“They got to grips with what they wanted to do and they got the right players in for the system they wanted to play.
“As you have seen in their results in the second half of the season they were a really difficult team to beat.
“They caused us all kinds of problems on their pitch.
“We eventually got to groups with it and we were clinical that day.
“In those first 15 minutes, we were probably rode our luck in the game and we saw how well their players have bought into their system.
“Once we played them at their place we identified them as a team who will be a force to be reckoned with.
“When we saw them we said they were one of the best sides we have seen this season by far.
“We expected Harrogate making the play-offs.
“It will be an interesting tactical battle, especially in the early stages.
“We have changed our shape over the last eight games which has seen us be in good form so it will be interesting.
“It is a one-off game.
“The prize at the end of it is huge.
“People mirror it to a cup final.
“In a cup final you win a cup and that accolade but the prize at the end of this is promotion.
“That transforms everything about your immediate future.
“The prize is far bigger, but the occasion is like a cup final and teams know winner takes all.”