Against all odds

To say it was against the odds might seem somewhat corny, but this was a side that on more than one occasion was written off by onlookers.

However a collective spirit and a 'never know when we're beaten' resolution in the ranks paid dividends over a tense final few months as a team lacking it's top goalscorer in Mark Bellingham and hit by injuries to fellow strikers Rob Taylor, Lee Bullimore, Paul Danks and Ryan Broadhurst ground out the results needed to lead us to Saturday's big occasion.

Way back in July, in a pre-season game, we suffered a 7 - 0 mauling at our near neighbours Halesowen Town and people wondered just what sort of season we were in for.

No matter that it was just a friendly and a chance to experiment. Suddenly talk of a genuine promotion push seemed optimistic to say the least. Three defeats in our first three matches also had people scratching their heads as we lay bottom of the table at the end of August, although we hadn't actually played that badly in any of those games.

F A Cup wins over Highgate and Leamington lifted the spirits, but our form and results continued to be hit-and-miss until we got into October and suddenly, apart from the odd blip, we started to show what we were capable of.

Up to the turn of the year we netted 40 points out of a possible 48 points (including eight straight league victories) as the goals of Bellingham and Leon Broadhurst in particular fired us to the top of the table. There was also the small matter of a win over the Yeltz in the Worcestershire Senior Cup too.

January 5, though saw one of the lowlights of the season. Mark Bellingham suffered a serious injury early on and we crashed to a 3 - 1 defeat at the hands of a very useful Chesham side.

Mark was quickly ruled out for the rest of the season and to many, our hopes of promotion seemed gone. Just how do you replace the division's leading goalscorer?

A stop-start few weeks with postponements and free dates also saw the Glassboys suffer defeats at struggling Woodford and at home to Rushall and Evesham without also finding the net and the doubters appeared to be proven right as we slipped down the league. Gary and the backroom team though refused to panic as they believed in the players they had. The return to fitness of Rob Taylor - albeit briefly - helped to provide an additional spark up-front and the addition of Gavin Winsper provided more backbone to the side.

As we found our goalscoring touch again, our confidence grew and suddenly we were off again on a memorable run that saw us pick up 31 points from 11 matches. This included a useful draw at Evesham and hugely significant wins over Chasetown and Leamington.

Whilst we were not quite the freescoring team that we had been before Christmas, we had now developed a steeliness that made us hard to break down and suddenly goals were coming from all areas of the team with the likes of Leon, James Dyson and Nathan Bennett netting matchwinning goals. A 2 - 1 midweek win at Chesham early in April really strengthened our play-off chances and indeed a third place finish was finally achieved - and home advantage in the play-off semi-final.

The play-off games at home to Sutton Coldfield and then Leamington last Saturday mirrored in many ways our endeavours of the last three or four months. At times, we had to defend resolutely with Lewis Solly playing his part as the last line of defence with some fine saves.

But a dogged determination in difficult conditions in the second period against Sutton, followed by a monumental defensive display in-front of over 1,600 at Leamington saw us hold sway. Just when the dreaded penalty shoot-out was looming, we broke away and when Leon Broadhurst blasted home, I'm sure all the Glassboys fans leapt in the air in a mix of absolute joy and perhaps disbelief too that their team was indeed going up!