UNITED WE STAND – ON THE WAY UP!
Clubs should have merged years ago, jokes Ossett chief
FOR years the possibility of a merger between Ossett Town and Ossett Albion lingered on – now they’re left wondering why on earth they didn’t do it sooner!
Three months on from when the two Evo-Stik Northern Premier League East sides came together, the newly-named Ossett United have gone from strength to strength.
The new club plays at Town’s former home Ingfield while Albion’s ground is used for their women’s team and as a training base.
Ossett were unbeaten before yesterday’s visit from Spalding United and boasted impressive attendances that have gone from 180 last season to over 500 – and there’s big plans for the future at the West Yorkshire club.
“We just launched a new club shop, we’re putting new toilet blocks in, our bar is up and running,” chief executive Phil Smith listed off to The NLP.
“We imported some seats from Japan which took 11 weeks to arrive but they’re all in, we’ve just had a quote of £500,000 to put down a 3G pitch in May to turn the women’s ground into a fullgood on training facility. It is the only club, along with Manchester City, to have a women’s programme in their own dedicated stadium, which is unbelievable. The women’s team are unbeaten too.
Pitchforks
“Ossett Albion sold 44 shirts in 72 years, we sold our 501st shirt this week since June. We’ve sold 124 season tickets which is amazing.”
There were some supporters against the merger but Smith ensures they have now been won over by the new regime.
“We’ve done really well and there’s no negativity in the town. As long as there’s no one outside the ground with pitchforks and burning embers then we’ll be alright!”
Albion’s manager Andy Welsh, the former Stockport County, Sunderland, Toronto and Yeovil midfielder, was given the chance to continue his good work as United’s boss.
“I had a job to do when I went into Albion to keep the club in the division,” he said.
“We stayed up convincingly in the end and with the players we were bringing in; I had an eye on what we wanted to do next season whether the merger went through or not.
“The players so far have been outstanding in what we’re trying to achieve and with it being a brand new club. All in all, we have been uniting everyone together.”
With Albion, Welsh was taking his first steps into management, something he wasn’t sure he would ever do, while still trying to get some minutes on the pitch himself.
“I played last year but there was a Christmas period which saw me off in the end! I have registered myself as a player but my focus now is on the management side of things, I’m really, really enjoying it.
“I love working with the team around me and the players. If truth be known I’m sat here at 35 and by saying I’m not playing, I’m a little bit gutted!
Ambition
“As a 16-year-old not part of an academy system and four or five years after that I was playing in the Premier League is what dreams are made of.
“To have won the Championship and League Two, played in the MLS, I’d like to say I had a career and an interesting one.”
Welsh admits he is still learning on the management job and regularly picks the brains of his old teammates, AFC Fylde manager Dave Challinor and Harrogate Town assistant Paul Thirlwell.
But at Ossett he gets to put his own stamp on things and has a chance to build a legacy.
“I think with a brand new club you have to have an ambition,” he added.
“I remember at Toronto FC, it was their first ever season in the MLS and there was no real ambition there.
“We didn’t get to play a home game for four games because the stadium wasn’t finished. For us, we want to finish as high as possible.
“The people behind the scenes have worked so hard over the summer. It is mental really because you see kids walking around town in an Ossett United shirt and not a Manchester United one.
“I’d like to see this venture through for as long as I can. In the region of Wakefield, we really are on a sleeping giant if we can get the whole community behind us.”