Crows boss says club is in a fantastic place following their long-awaited promotion on Saturday

ROYSTON TOWN manager Paul Attfield described his delight after the Crows were crowned Premier Division champions on Saturday following a 1-0 win at Oxhey Jets.

Their promotion was confirmed after rivals Dunstable Town were beaten by the same scoreline at home to Hillingdon Borough, and according to Attfield, the success is the culmination of everyone at the club pulling in the same direction.

“You can’t run any sort of football project by just trying to be successful on the pitch,” Attfield told the Royston Crow. “You need the club to be well run off the pitch behind the scenes as well and everyone has to want the same thing. [Chairman] Steve [Jackson] and the committee have been extremely supportive and this promotion is just as much down to them as it is to the players.

“The club is a completely different place to what it was when I joined four and a half years ago and I have been backed to the hilt by Steve and the committee in terms of bringing in players and getting them on contracts. We are well structured now – we’ve got good facilities, a good youth set-up and a first team that has just won promotion.

“When I first joined we were struggling at the bottom end of Division One playing in front of a man and his dog, but now we’re getting crowds of 200 people and it’s fantastic to be a part of and long may it continue.”

The Crows will enter the Evo-Stik Division One Central from next season, and Attfield says it will not be a case of just trying to consolidate, but challenging for the play-off places.

“I don’t like the word consolidation,” he said. “I want us to be competitive. There won’t be the same level of expectation on us like this year but I want us to finish in the top half with the quality we’ve got. I’d like to think in two years time we could push for the next level.

“All the players will have the chance to show they are good enough in that league. Most of the players have been with me for a long time since youth football, and they deserve the chance next season. I’m sure they won’t fail because they have the ability.”

Royston finished third last season and fourth the season before, and despite coming so close to promotion and ultimately missing out, Attfield says the experience gained from those campaigns added to the foundations for this year’s success.

“The players have learned lessons each year,” he added. “I said at the start of the season it might take over 100 points to get promotion and so it’s proved. But to win 33 games out of 40 so far has been outstanding and I don’t think you can ask for much more than that.

“But the season isn’t over yet, and we’ve still got two cup finals to look forward to, so we want to end the season well.”