Latest news with #BrackleyTown
BBC News
26-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Brackley delighted by 'extraordinary' promotion
Brackley Town manager Gavin Cowan has hailed their promotion to the top tier of English non-league football as "something extraordinary".After coming so close in the past, they beat Farsley Celtic 5-0 to become National League North champions as rivals Kidderminster Harriers, who began the day top of the table, lost 2-1 at Saints reached the play-offs in 2018, 2019, 2020 and again in 2022, 2023 and 2024 but were unable to finish the goals by Danny Newton, Tyler Lyttle, Connor Hall and Terry O'Sullivan put them 4-0 up by half-time in front of a crowd of 1,691 at St James Scott Pollock rounded things off with the fifth in the final minute of the game to ensure play-offs would not be needed this time."We're up there with the best part-time clubs but really, we shouldn't be beating teams like Kidderminster and Scunthorpe to the league," Cowan told BBC Radio Northampton."There's something extraordinary been done here, not just by the players but by the staff, the hierarchy and the fans as well. It's been a big, big collective effort." Brackley were founded in 1890 and before winning the title, their greatest achievement came in 2018 when they were victorious in the FA Trophy chairman Francis Oliver said: "Wembley was unbelievable and this is just the same."The last 30 minutes was sheer torture, how time goes so slowly - but I just feel so proud for the players, supporters, volunteers, everybody. It's just amazing."The Saints won their last six games of the season to finish top and Oliver promised they would give it their "best shot" in the National League next will be facing a number of former English Football League clubs, including Aldershot, Yeovil Town and Hartlepool their performance against Farsley, Cowan said: "The players were excellent, they showed a real ruthless mentality and I couldn't be any prouder."We created a real intensity, a real patience because we knew we were going to have a lot of possession, we wanted to play our patterns and we did."We weren't fazed about anything else. What was going on elsewhere didn't interest me in the slightest until your realise the game's won. "The feeling I've got is incredible, I can't imagine what all the good people of this club are feeling after so many years of having a go at it."
BBC News
25-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Brackley and Kettering gear up for final matches of season
Brackley Town's chairman said the club did not deserve promotion from National League North if they could not beat bottom side Farsley two clubs meet at Brackley's St James Park on Saturday for the final match of the Francis Oliver said the players maintained the belief they could be champions this time around, having faltered in the play-offs numerous times the other end of the county, Kettering Town are also hoping for promotion from Southern League Premier Division Central when they entertain Banbury at Latimer Park, but it comes against a run of poor results. Brackley are used to being the bridesmaid not the bride, reaching the play-offs in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024 but failing to win time, they are hoping for a triumphant walk up the aisle to the National League, ideally qualifying for promotion by topping their said: "The players have believed all season that they were going to win the league, so I don't think the play-offs are going to come into it."If we can't beat Farsley Celtic, we don't deserve it anyway." He said the 2024 final was a classic example of Brackley's "so near and yet so far" curse. "Everybody was confident - we'd beaten Boston twice in the league - but things just happen in a match and it just turns."We let a goal in straight on half-time and didn't turn up in the second half."The team are currently second in the table, level on points with Kidderminster Harriers but with a much poorer goal said he had checked the weather forecast for Saturday and was planning to take his lucky umbrella. Meanwhile, Kettering Town's quest for promotion sees them welcome Banbury United to Latimer are second in their table, three points behind Bedford have found themselves sticking with their team in sickness and in health this fan and photographer, Peter Short, said: "They've allowed a nine-point lead just to evaporate, that's where the frustration lies, but a lot of people are overly critical. "No time for that now - there's an opportunity to win a league, it's full positivity from now until five o'clock Saturday." If Kettering end up in the play-offs their games are likely to be played at home, but Short said that might not work in their favour."Richard Lavery and a few members of the playing staff [think] the famous Latimer Park surface isn't their favourite and maybe playing away might serve them better, but a lot of people in Kettering would love to roar their team over the line at home." Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
17-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Brackley sights fixed on automatic promotion
Brackley Town defender Zak Lilly hopes they can take play-offs out of the equation and win automatic promotion this Saints reached the National League North play-offs in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024 without going are currently third in the table, but below Kidderminster Harriers on goal difference only and with just a single point to make up on leaders Scunthorpe United."It's what everyone at the club has been dreaming of for the past couple of years," Lilly told BBC Radio Northampton."I know it's been play-off after play-off and it would be a big relief if we just won it outright. That's what we want to do, everyone's got the common goal. "We just need to make sure that we win our games and then we'll see what happens."Lilly has made 37 appearances this season, scoring once, helping Brackley win 26 of their 43 games under boss Gavin are at home to Oxford City on Friday, followed by a trip to Leamington on Monday, and then finish the campaign by taking on bottom club Farsley Celtic in front of their own fans."We're going to try and win our last three games. We're going to focus on ourselves and if we don't manage to come top, at least we'll have some good form going into the play-offs," said Lilly."I've been playing in this league nine or 10 years and that's the main thing I want to achieve, get a promotion."It's a big achievement, there's some really good teams in the league and to come out on top would really say something." Lilly joined Brackley in the summer of 2023 following a spell with Hereford and was in the squad last season when they beat Scunthorpe in the play-off semi-finals, only to then lose 2-1 to Boston United, who were added: "If you don't step up, you're going to be left out. When you play with better players, you always play better. And that is the case (here) because everyone at Brackley is really good."
BBC News
11-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Lowe seeks to end Brackley promotion frustration
Midfielder Matt Lowe has set his sights on helping Brackley Town finally secure a place in the top flight of non-league football after returning to the club following two years in the professional Saints reached the National League North play-offs in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024 without being able to take the final shared in the disappointment on the first four occasions before jumping three tiers to join Accrington Stanley, then a League One club."It's instilled in all of us now, because we've been in and around it year on year, it just makes you want it even more," Lowe told BBC Radio Northampton's Non-League Scene."Although it's great to come back every season and be there or thereabouts, unfortunately at the minute we still haven't got what the aim has been from the get-go, which is to get promoted."Having reached the play-off final in the past two seasons and losing to Kidderminster Harriers and Boston United in the process, Brackley are going well again - in third place in the table, only three points behind leaders Chester with a game in hand."It couldn't be a much better written story if this is the season where I come back and we manage to get promoted, that would be massive," said Lowe, who has scored eight goals so far this season. A qualified teacher, he has found returning to semi-professional status after leaving Accrington last summer a far easier adjustment than going full-time."I always said it was going to take a special opportunity to make me leave teaching and being at Brackley, but sometimes you have to take a little bit of a risk. When the opportunity came to join a League One side, I definitely would have regretted not taking that decision (to move)," he said."Going to the polar opposite of full-time football, I found it difficult at the start transitioning with what to do in my free time - I was constantly trying to fill it by doing extras on the training pitch, or going to the gym and doing extra sessions, just because working hard was in my DNA."Sometimes the art of being a full-time footballer is knowing when your body needs to recover and (knowing that) sometimes you need to do nothing. I actually struggled with that at the start."Now I've got a job to focus on and other things going on besides football and it allows me just to get there on the Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and go and enjoy it."Brackley are away to fifth-placed Chorley on Tuesday evening, followed by a trip to bottom of the table Marine on Saturday."We've won our past two games so we're full of confidence. We know every game we play is going to be a tough one," Lowe added.
