Brighouse Town have been reprieved in the past week from their relegation in the Northern Premier League East Division after finishing second bottom on goal difference with Bridlington Town. The two vital wins over Consett and Carlton Town under the stewardship of caretaker manager Paul Quinn were vital.
All the new allocations from Step 3 to Step 6 were sent out at 2pm last Friday and there was a great feeling of relief amongst officials and supporters at the Heffernan Utilities Stadium.
New manager Grant Black can now get on with his recruiting and also adding another one or two pre-season friendlies to his growing list, although with ground maintenance they will all be played away from home.
Bradford Park Avenue have been relegated for a second successive season and will be visitors this coming season along with two new clubs from the north east, namely Bishop Auckland from Durham and Heaton Stannington from Tyneside, plus one from the midlands to replace Grantham Town, namely Sherwood Colliery. Grantham have moved into the MPL Midlands League but their neighbours Carlton Town from Nottinghamshire remain in the East Division despite wanting a move.
There will be two new clubs from West Yorkshire, namely Emley and Garforth Town and this makes for 22 clubs in all and 42 fixtures as against 38 last term.
The list of retained players is growing by the day and at the time of going to print Black had nailed down Josh Dacre, Matty Nebard, Myron Gibbons, Jack Normanton, Cameron Bedford, Jamie Allsop, Ezio de Santis, Josh Grant, Ash Butterworth, Sam Drake and Curtis Peters.
He has also added a midfielder in Connor Blunt from Cornish club Mousehole, near Penzance who has played for him before at Belper Town and prior to that with Leeds Utd and Sheffield United. He has returned north to his Huddersfield home after a good run with one of the top three clubs in Cornwall.
Another friendly has been added to the list of three from last week, with Wombwell away on July 20.
The club are now hoping they can land Bank Holiday derby games with the likes of Bradford PA and Emley if they haven’t already been beaten to it by the likes of Liversedge and Ossett United who knew where they stood for next season well in advance of Town.
