Central Midlands League
Keelan Hall says ambitious Dearne & District hope to have a ground ready for Toolstation NCEL football by the end of the season.
South Yorkshire-based side Dearne have captured the imagination of many this summer after making a host of marquee signings including Hemsworth Miners Welfare legend Nick Guest and Maltby Main captain Joe Austin.
Outsiders would question how sustainable their budget is considering they do not have floodlights but Hall says his club have made giant strides with ground development.
“I’ve seen comments when we have made signings and I know don’t other budgets (in the CML), but I would be amazed if our budget is top four or five in the league,” Hall told Non League Yorkshire.
“We’ve not got briefcases of cash – the budget is sensible.
“We have got good contacts and we have recruited well.
“We’ve had to explain the project to the players because if you look at it from the outside you have players coming down (the leagues) to play for a team who currently don’t even have a ground with floodlights so how can they progress?
“It is all in hand and it is going to be a busy 12 months.
“When I came into the club two years ago the project was ‘let’s get to the NCEL in five years’.
“We’re definitely ahead of schedule with that.
“We are building the infrastructure as we build the squad.
“The plans were to stay at (our current ground) as we only needed floodlights but we got pushed back on planning permission last year due to the houses located around it.
“We have two grounds at Dearne as we have the junior ground five minutes down the road.
“The development will happen at the junior ground and that has already started in some aspects.
“With the floodlights (for the junior ground) we have funding, planning permission, it is just a case of getting them installed and that will be in September-time I would imagine.
“There’s a whole host of things on top of that like paths, stands, changing rooms.
“There’s going to be a lot happening at the club over the 12 months.
“I would suggest by the end of the coming season, hopefully we will have applied for the NCEL and I’m pretty sure we’ll be there as far as (ground) requirements).”
Striker Sam Green, goalkeeper Jordan Watson, Owen Sykes, Carlton Carty and Dean Conway are some of the other signings and Hall is thrilled with his recruitment.
“We started thinking about this season as early as November last year so we started thinking about the type of players we wanted, the way we wanted to play, the type of characters we wanted – winners, leaders, people who have won stuff,” he said.
“As soon as the season finished we cracked on with speaking to players and I’ve been really happy with it.
“Other than one-or-two pretty much everyone we had as a target we have got in.
“The conversations have been relatively easy.
“Dearne has not got much of a reputation for the adult side of football.
“I went in two years ago and it had no reputation whatsoever so at that point conversations were quite difficult.
“I think people are seeing the project work and they’re really buying into it.
“It has been a good summer and it is a strong squad on paper, but that doesn’t mean anything.
“You have to get them to gel.”
Whilst ambitious, Hall is well-aware the challenge they face if they go for the title as the CML is ultra competitive and Ryan Hindley’s Retford United have made equally, if not better, signings.
“With the way we have gone about our business it shows ambition,” he said.
“It shows we want to be challenging.
“I’m under no illusions that it isn’t going to be easy.
“I see it as the strongest Step 7 league in the country.
“You only have to look at the applicants for Step 6 to see that.
“I don’t think there is a league with as many applicants in the country.
“There are a lot of strong teams in there.
“Retford will be really really strong, if not stronger than last season.
“Thorne will be set up well again.
“Harworth, Glapwell are strong sides along with Dinnington.
“From what we have done in the summer, if we gel then I would place us in that bracket.
“It will be a difficult task.”
Good luck for the season you will get same stick as shaw lane did with a big budget and teams will try that bit harder because of it
Quite agree with Doug and hope you go that bit further and silly people dont get in your way. Imagine where Shaw Lane would of been now. Harrogate comes to mind. Best of luck