Amateur Football: AFC Emley chasing fifth straight win

Jan 25 2010 by Mel Booth, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

AFC EMLEY will be hunting a fifth successive League win against Grimsby Borough on Wednesday with manager Ian Banks believing they can mount a strong challenge for promotion this season.

Fresh from Saturday’s 3-1 victory at fifth-placed Pontefract Collieries, in which a Lee Hill double and a Steve Kenworthy opener were enough to seal the points, Emley are sitting right among the front-runners in the Northern Counties East League Division I.

Banks reckons Staveley MW, Leeds Carnegie and Tadcaster Albion are Emley’s main rivals for honours, but he’s confident his squad– put together on a shoestring but packed with spirit – can compete with all of them, and he intends to prove the point over the next three months.

“We’ve got a great little club and over the last 18 months we’ve got a decent squad together, great lads to work with who will run their hearts out,” said Banks, a star player at the Welfare Ground after his long and much-travelled Football League career (including Town) was over.

“When we play to the best of our ability we are as good as anyone at our level and there’s no reason why we can’t be right up there come the end of the season.

“We’ve got a great set-up with hard-working people behind the scenes, a fantastic pitch prepared by Ray Chappell which is the envy of our League, and we’ve got players who realise every game is a massive one for us, because we can’t rely on our rivals slipping up – we have to do it for ourselves.

“The lads are terrific, though. Most of them have got decent jobs, so they are playing just for the love of the game and the love of the club and receiving just a few quid in expenses.