Beeston St Anthony’s want to make their upcoming centenary season a big success.
That’s the ambition according to joint manager Steven Tierney who shares the post with Mark Halmshaw who is on the mend in hospital following a freak accident last week.
The West Yorkshire League Premier Division giants were formed in 2021 and Tierney and the club hope next season is one to remember – ideally by winning their first title since 2016.
“We have various plans in place to properly celebrate it,” Tierney told Non League Yorkshire.
“There’s a separate committee for the plans so I can’t confirm events.
“But we want all the teams, that’s the first team, the reserves, the third team, the under 21s to be really competitive while we celebrate the centenary year.
“(For the first team) there is a number of key points.
“We’ve not won the league in a number of years so we want to win the league, that’s the bread and butter.
“The Leeds & District FA Cup is played at Elland Road every second year so that big event when that comes along and there’s a number of players who have dropped who have never played at Elland Road.
“That brings it own dimension.
“Then you have the (West Riding) Challenge Cup and I remember when Beeston did win it in 2016 they went and represented the league in a game against a team from Liverpool and they won that.
“There’s a number of different reasons why we want to continue to be strong.”
Beeston – whose ground is a stone’s throw from Elland Road, the home of one of the country’s greatest teams Leeds United – have been the top side in the WYL for the last two years.
But they have nothing to show for their fine endeavours.
Beeston knocked Carlton Athletic – who had won the title three times in a row – off their perch during the 2019/20 season and they were the runaway leaders when the campaign was expunged.
The team were also unbeaten and chasing WYL history so losing the chance of a remarkable achievement was hard to take, admits former Pontefract Collieries player Tierney.
“Carlton were unbelievable and that was a very strong West Yorkshire Premier title-winning team and they dominated (for several years),” he said.
“I was at Leeds City (before 2019) who kind of disbanded. I know they are still running but the majority of the West Yorkshire League team went to Horsforth St Margarets.
“At that time I was approached by Beeston and I took the opportunity.
“Beeston had seen a couple of lads retire and one of the better players Stevie Crawford had gone to Yorkshire Amateur.
“It was kind of a big change.
“The reserve team has always been strong and you talk about being unbeaten, they’ve won their mini-league and were unbeaten. They were top of their league when it got null and voided.
“So we promoted a few from the reserve team and we had a strong under 21s team so a few lads came from that team.
“For whatever reason it is all came together, but I remember some of the early four or five games of the season.
“We were winning, but only getting by and then we just found our groove.
“It is still a sore one, but there’s more important things in the world.
“Other leagues were the same and it was driven (the null and void decision) by the FA so there’s blame at the West Yorkshire League’s doorstep.
“But when you’re that far ahead and you have Ilkley’s manager saying openly that the league should be given to you, it is a tough one.
“From my perspective, it had become known to us from the League that no team had gone unbeaten before.
“There were nine games to go and don’t get me wrong it would have been tough to do it, but it was a possibility.
“We’ve never been compared to the Carlton’s and the Bardsey’s because based on one season you couldn’t be because they dominated for a good period of time.
“But it would have been something no other team would have been able to say they had done.”
Although Beeston topped the recent WYL Premier Division mini-league – with a team containing ex-Non League stars such as former Garforth Town midfielders and Sam Akeroyd and Ben Thornton plus Sam Hewitt (the ex-Brighouse Town captain), and striker Baz Frankland – the disappointment of 19/20 lingers on and will be a driving force in August.
“Luckily we have managed to keep the nucleus of that squad and we have added to it as we lost a couple to Northern Counties teams,” he said.
“The vast majority are still with us and they are probably still with us as they feel they have a point to prove.
“From that Beeston team that won the treble in 2016 I think there’s only two or three members of that squad still with us.
“So a lot of our squad have never won the league before or certainly not won the West Yorkshire Premier before.
“It is certainly something for them to tick off the list.”
Another aspect of the Beeston success story is the number of players who have stepped up into Non League Football.
Brighouse Town defender Matty Nebard has arguably been the most successful having become an established Northern Premier League player.
But the likes of Crawford (Yorkshire Amateur) and Nostell trio Joe Wood, Harvey Booth and Ash Austin have equally blossomed in the NCEL.
So in the eyes of Tierney, how does the NCEL and fellow Step 7 league the Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League compare to the WYL Premier?
“I think the top three or four clubs could compete in the NCEL Division One, no problems,” he said.
“You’ve seen the amount of players who have left the West Yorkshire League to go play in that league and they’re a success.
“There’s some players who have gone far higher.
“I don’t think (the step-up between levels) is quite a daunting task.
“When we have played NCEL sides in pre-season we have always competed.
“We’ve never felt out of our depth.
“As far as the County Senior League I don’t know too much about it other than reading your articles and seen the calibre of players and teams.
“We played Wakefield (from the County Senior League) in a pre-season game last year and we beat them 5-1, but it wasn’t a 5-1 result.
“They were good and we came off saying ‘that’s the best pre-season game we’ve had’.
“I looked at Wakefield in their league table and I thought ‘blimey if there’s teams above them then they must be worthy of playing’.
“That’s why I got in touch in Dodworth (to arrange a pre-season friendly on the 31st July).
“The problem is if we play local NCEL teams you’re putting your players in the shop window and unfortunately we’ve had a lot of interest over the years.”
The last week has been pretty tough for Beeston with the news about stalwart Halmshaw as he is the life and soul of the club.
“He has been pretty much at the heartbeat of Beeston St Anthony’s for many years,” Tierney said.
“He’s been with the club pretty much all his life as a player and now manager.
“He’s managed the third team, the reserves and the first team.
“We wish him well.”
The 2021/21 West Yorkshire League Premier Division season is due to commence in August.
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Our work is playing an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
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