Horbury set for journey of discovery – Barnes

Darren Barnes says Horbury Town will treat their first season in the Toolstation Northern Counties East League as a journey of discovery.

The West Yorkshire League giants are stepping to the NCEL after the FA approved their application for promotion along with Beverley Town and Wakefield AFC.

It will be a step into the unknown for Horbury and Barnes won’t be setting any bold targets.

“There was pressure (last season) because we had to be in the top three mix and there was pressure off-the-pitch (to get the ground ready) because there was so much stuff that needed to be done alongside the financial drain,” Barnes told Non League Yorkshire. 

“Now we have achieved (promotion); whilst there is still pressure; we have worked hard to get there so we have to at least enjoy it. 

“It is going to be a tough challenge.

“We’re coming up against the money side of it and it is not something we have been able to do or match in the West Yorkshire League.

“We are pushing sponsorship to generate income which will also be able to do through the gate as well.

“I think we’re an attractive club.

“We’re in a good location and we’re bang in the middle of the league.

“There are players out there who for them it is not all about the money.

“Players just want to be given a chance and Horbury is well known for giving youngsters a chance and it has never done us any harm because over the last five years we have only ever improved.

“First season though, it is a whole new journey for us and we just want to enjoy it and see where it takes us.”

Horbury’s squad contains a few names that long-term followers of NCEL may recognise.

Forward Josh Stacey, a throwback from the great Simon Houghton eras at Pontefract Collieries and Kinsley Boys is one player.

Ex-Liversedge striker Gib Bojang and Joe Penn, a former Nostell Miners Welfare player, are also on Horbury’s books.

Barnes, whose management team contains assistant manager Matthew Mosalski and physio Becky Mountain, is currently assembling a squad for the new season.

“I’m speaking to the current squad of players and I’m gaging what their plans are for next year,” he said.

“I do this every year; not just because we have gone up; I always say ‘give us a year and see what we can do’ and we have not lost one player this year.

“We have stuck with it and for a club not to lose any players throughout a season; I think is incredible.

“Step Six doesn’t suit everyone because of the amount of fixtures, the midweek games, the travelling and I have to gage what the current players are feeling.

“I’m speaking to new players and building a bigger team around me and the volunteer side of it for match-days.

“We have very little time to get it together because in four-or-five weeks’ time we are back in pre-season.

“We will have four weeks and the season starts.”

Promotion to Step Six concludes several years of work to get their Slazengers Sports Complex home up to standard for the jump.

Barnes says it has been a big effort from everyone at his club.

“It is a great feeling (to be promoted),” he said.

“This is my 13th year at the club and I’ve been a player, reserve manager and now first team manager for five years.

“Joe Mosalski, the chairman, has been here for 30 years and for him to get the club to semi-professional football is a massive achievement for him.

“People like Stuart and Debbie Longbottom, who are long-term committee members, deserve huge credit too.

“The hard work has paid off.

“It has been an ongoing project for three or four years and a gradual process.

“Because of finances it is not easy to get your ground ready for (Step Six).

“We had to redevelop the changing rooms to make them satisfactory for Step Six.

“We managed to get all the paving work done and you’re talking two hundred metres of paving slabs laid down and that’s a large cost because of the materials.

“The application for the floodlights has been accepted and we’re hoping they will go up in the next couple of months.

“The ground has been passed for (Step Six).

“There’s been a few comments flying about, ‘how Horbury getting into that level, the ground isn’t ready’?

“Well… the FA wouldn’t have approved us if it wasn’t ready.”

One disappointment perhaps was not winning the West Yorkshire League Premier Division as Horbury were pipped by Horsforth St Margarets on the final day.

Barnes has taken missing out on the title on the chin.

“If I had to choose between anything, the promotion was the main goal,” he said.

“For us as a club, if we had won the league or the double but had been turned down for the promotion, that would have been more devastating than finishing second.”