Worsbrough Bridge have their best points tally since the 2013/14 season with 12 matches still to play and manager Lee Morris is not giving up on promotion.
The Briggers, who won 3-2 at East Yorkshire Carnegie this week, have 46 points in the NCEL Division One which is more than they have collected in any of their last four seasons which have mainly been spent battling relegation.
Morris said: “Everyone at the club is buzzing at the moment. The players are but also the fans and volunteers who have seen some difficult years.
“If we said we would have been in this position at the start of the season, we would have been laughed at.
“We went to East Yorkshire Carnegie at the end of last season at risk of going down but now we have won there to stay four points off second. It’s great progress.
“It’s on record that we have the lowest budget in the league and teams are splashing a lot of cash to get out of this division. It would be like Leicester City winning the Premier League in 2016 if we went up but we all believe we can do it.”
Bridge are unbeaten in 2019 after following a draw with two wins while they have not lost in six games since December 1. They are fifth, eight off leaders Campion and five behind Grimsby Borough who are in the second of two promotion places.
Morris said: “I don’t see why we can’t finish in the top two. We have all the other top six to play so those games will be really important. We have only lost three games since the first week of October which is an incredible achievement.”
Bridge have played the most games of any side in the top ten which is unusual for a club who have often seen their pitch flooded by the nearby River Dove – leading to multiple postponements and a backlog of fixtures late in previous seasons.
Morris said: “We have only had one game called off this season and the weather has been kind to us. People around the league have been saying we are in a false position all season because we had played more games than anyone else.
"But now most of the teams around us are catching up and we are still up there. Some clubs have a few games in hand on us but they are going to end up playing two or three games a week which is very hard.”
Tomorrow, Morris’ men are due to visit eighth-placed Dronfield Town who are five points behind them with three games in hand.
“It will be a tough one. They won at our ground earlier in the season. They are a big, strong team but, if the best Worsbrough Bridge team turns up on the day, we can beat anyone in this league.”
Bridge chairman Peter Schofield resigned this week. The club is hoping to appoint a replacement next week.
