Proud SJR chairman pays tribute to amazing progress of title-winning Ladies side

A thrilling 4-3 derby win over Retford saw them home, though not without keeper Olivia Walker having to save a last minute penalty.

“The women are now at Tier 5 of the football pyramid which is the equivalent of the Conference in the men’s game,” smiled Guest.“Imagine little old us being that high up. Not bad for a bunch of Sunday league no-hopers.“I’m going to enjoy it, because the old me struggled to enjoy successes.“I know one day it might all go wrong, but they can’t take moments like this away from us.

“We inherited this team from Worksop Town four years ago when they were priced out of playing at Sandy Lane.

“On the verge of collapse, their old manager Rob Hardy got in touch with me to move them under our name.“At the time we had no money to offer them, but we could offer stability and a home.“For the first season I pretty much left them alone. They had a strong squad but were basically a mid-table team and the mentality appeared to be that was acceptable.“They were a talented bunch, but we were three or four players short of challenging.“There was potential but they lacked leadership, so I made the move to get rid of the manager.

“I brought in Lee Scott and Phillip Hall to take it to where I thought it could go.“Initially it was met with a backlash, players walked and those that remained weren’t entirely happy.“Going into the next season I knew we were on the back foot, it was a case of going backwards to move forwards.“Last season was a slog, looking like getting relegated from start to finish, but one character who stuck by us in our worst moment was captain Abbie Lister.”

It then took good recruitment to turn things around.“The turning point in my opinion was bringing in Tammy Hessey, a top goalie in Olivia Walker, but most importantly the strength of character that is Ayesha Stead,” said Guest.“That season we managed to stay up, which in itself was an achievement. This was aided by the likes of Lucie Jane Spendiff and Aimee Roper, who were there from start to end and performed brilliantly.“Going into this season the recruitment started straight away. We knew having Ayesha would help get Lauren Michele Cundy, Emily Murphy and Beth Gingell through the door.“Off the back of them, Amy O'Brien came and then the talented young trio of Emily Myatt,Lily Brown and Leah Markham joined along with the returns of Shannon Brooks and Lauren Bell gave us one hell of a chance of having a good crack at winning the league.“The final piece of the jigsaw was bringing in the experience and class of Rachael Bell“At the start of the season they were blowing teams away, but after a month a lot of clubs reacted and started strengthening.“The rough patch came around Christmas, but a change of shape and the introduction of Sarah Harvey and Naomi Childerley helped to strengthen the squad.“After a draw at Sleaford looked to have ended all title hopes the momentum started to change. “Then came the Dronfield match with a number of players missing and Cundy produced our Aguero moment.”

A thrilling finish ensued.“We went into the Oughtibridge match knowing they’d got countless players duel registered from higher leagues. We either accepted this or fought fire with fire,” said Guest.“So in came Leah Hardy - the girl who had propelled this team through the leagues before moving to Lincoln City. It was her goal against Oughtibridge that put us in pole position to win it.“It then came down to a Bassetlaw Derby to seal it.“We were obviously favourites, but I’ve been around football too long to think it was just going to be a stroll in the park. Tension and nerves do weird things to people.“I thought we'd blown it with the penalty at the end. But for once in my life the stars aligned and Olivia turned in Gordon Banks and palmed the penalty away.

“I’ve had high and lows in football but you can’t beat that feeling when you have moments like that.“This has been a long journey and at times my family have suffered because of it, so in the past I’d beat myself up for being a little smug but not this time.“This was a club effort and the crowd that came to watch was overwhelming.”