IT HAS been a year of solid progress for Town both on and off the field.
Manager Peter Jackson took the club to within a point of the play-offs last season and, in the current 2005-06 campaign, he has put Town firmly among the promotion favourites.
With a team packed full of talented homegrown Academy products, Town look primed for success.
And supporters have lapped up the entertainment, with a current average League gate of 12,486 providing a strong financial backbone for chairman Ken Davy and the board.
Around 9,000 of those regular supporters are season-ticket holders and, with commercial, retail and lottery revenue on the increase across the board, the club are now what Mr Davy describes as `self sufficient'.
That's a startling turnaround from the days of administration and it's Jackson's success on the field which is breeding success elsewhere.
While Town made a woeful start to the year, winning only one of their first eight League games, they finished in magnificent fashion with a club record run.
After the defeat at Chesterfield in March, which marked a last appearance for the club for promotion-winning captain Efe Sodje, Town won eight and drew the other of their last nine League fixtures.
That run underlined the potential in the Galpharm squad and increased expectations for the current season as Jackson had the majority of his most talented players still under contract and determined to take the club back to the Coca-Cola Championship.
The end of the season brought a departure for defender Steve Yates, who was fundamental to the play-off success of 2004, and also to a man who has served the club superbly in two spells at the Galpharm - club captain Rob Edwards.
And it was a fairytale ending for Edwards who, brought on as a substitute in his final appearance at the a stadium, scored a cracking goal to complete the 4-0 hammering of Swindon.
The ovation he received from every corner of the Galpharm will live long in the memory.
With Pawel Abbott finishing the season with 27 goals and a burgeoning reputation, the squad went off for their summer break in good heart.
When they returned for a tough pre-season including the Copa de Ibiza tournament in which they finished third to Coventry and winners QPR, there were three new faces in the camp to replace Akpo and Efe Sodje, Yates and Edwards.
Experienced Martin McIntosh, Mark Hudson and versatile striker Gary Taylor-Fletcher were drafted in to bolster the squad and Town made a very solid start.
Jackson collected the third Manager of Month award of his career for five wins in August - the curse struck when they lost the first match of September 4-1 at home to Scunthorpe - but he quickly got Town back on track and they've stayed up with the leaders ever since.
