WE COULD BE NEW HEROES
MICHAEL COULSON has told his team-mates to go out and make themselves Scarborough Athletic legends.
The Seadogs welcome Warrington Town on Monday afternoon with a place in the National League North at stake.
Skipper Coulson is from the town and began his career at the old Scarborough club.
So he knows exactly what lies ahead if they can get over the line.
“As a player and a team you want to be remembered by supporters,” Coulson told The NLP. “I am sure the supporters will remember a lot of the players this season because they’ve been absolutely fantastic.
“But if you go on and get promoted, you’re going to be legends here. You’re going to be welcome back whenever you want and you’re going to be loved.
“That’s what it’s about. That’s what you play. You don’t play to fight relegation and have fans booing you, you want to be loved.
“The opportunity there is for us to do that. It’s in our hands and hopefully we can perform.”
Coulson says seeing fans celebrating while he was driving home on Tuesday night after their win at Matlock hit home the significance of the victory.
Famous
And as someone who was a ball boy for their famous FA Cup clash with Chelsea in 2004, Coulson wants to help inspire the next generation too.
“It’s been great,” he said, My little boy Louie is five. I take him to school and there are kids in Scarborough shirts.
“It’s brilliant to see because that’s what it’s all about – getting people to come and support us and kids into their football. We are a bit out of the way in Scarborough so we need to give them something to cheer about – we don’t want them all to be Leeds fans!
“Since the new ground has been back here we’ve been getting great support. You can sense there is a buzz around the town for the football again.”
Coulson, 34, admits he’s never been quite so nervous as he was before Tuesday night’s semi-final. He wants to experience the enjoyment of promotion at his hometown club four years after they went up from Step 4.
And the former Grimsby Town and York City midfielder hailed Jonathan Greening’s squad that is bang in form.
“I’m an experienced player now,” Coulson said. “I’ve been through some changing rooms and I know it’s easy to say, but honestly this is one of the best I’ve been involved in.
“Team spirit does go a long way in football and, without a doubt, we’ve got one of the best I’ve seen here. That’s helped us with the results we’ve got, without a doubt.
“We’ve got a lot of younger players who are really hungry to do well and progress in their careers. Performances have been spot on on the pitch and if performances weren’t great, you knew you’d get 100 per cent from them.”
But he knows they have a sizeable task in Mark Beesley’s Yellows following their semi-final win at South Shields.
“Warrington will obviously be on a massive high after going to Shields and getting a result,” Coulson said. “That was a massive result for them and they will be well up for this game. It’s a oneoff game.
“We’ve beaten them this year but that doesn’t mean anything now. This is a different kettle of fish and we need to be ready for a proper battle on Monday.”