LIAM LEADS AN OLYMPIC RISE!
LIAM McDonald is so glad he stuck around to make a big noise in this little suburb of Walsall – even if he is unsure about what comes next.
Five-and-a-half years after taking over a Rushall Olympic side toiling at the wrong end of Step 3, the former Solihull Moors boss presided over history by toppling traditional giants Nuneaton Borough on penalties in Monday’s Southern Premier Central play-off final.
It is not the first time he has defied the odds, keeping Moors afloat in the National League in 2017 before exiting the October after.
Within weeks he had been lured back into the game by Pics chairman John Allen with progress resulting in admiring glances from elsewhere but Monday’s magic left McDonald in no doubt that he had made the right call.
“We came to Rushall to try to keep them up, that was what John wanted,” he told The NLP. “I stayed on, then we had Covid and he kept convincing me to stay because he is a top, top man.
“Last season (reaching the play-offs) was the pinnacle, we created history and a great feeling for the club but John was very honest, we have a mid-table budget and he expected us to be mid-table.
“You perhaps get opportunities to move on and I decided to stay. I am a loyal person and that has banked me this. It is a great feeling.
“I think everything I have done this season has justified that (decision). The bigger clubs that were interested didn’t make the play-offs and the clubs that were interested above didn’t do anything.
“This (pointing to the play-off trophy) was the most important thing, working for a chairman that supports and cares about me and I care about this football club. It has become mine now.”
It means Rushall – population 12,844 according to the most recent census – taking on fallen Football League giants in National North.
One of those is Scunthorpe United, a Championship club as recently as 12 years ago that averaged more people through the gate when England won the World Cup in 1966 – 15,570 – than live in Rushall today.
“I have no idea what is going to go on,” he admitted. “I need to assess what the club wants to do but this team and staff will go down as the greatest in the history of the club and I am really proud of that.
“Leamington and Telford have been relegated (from National North) and they are miles ahead of us in terms of budget.
“If I am being realistic, I am presuming we will just look to stay up which isn’t a bad thing. Can we stay in for a season? I don’t know, I look at Banbury and Peterborough Sports but again, they have bigger budgets than we do.”