Penn vs Oxhey Jets

We welcome you all to today’s game – a truly historic day for our football club as we celebrate winning the Combined Counties League Division One title and promotion from Step Six to Step Five football.

This is the culmination of a 10-year journey from the first time that we won the league back in the old Hellenic Football League days. But we were unable to take promotion due to lack of floodlights.

Ten years later, two ground-shares, numerous different management teams, ups, but mainly downs on that journey. We arrive back today at the top of the league and rightfully being able to gain our position at Step Five.

It’s quite ironic that 10 years ago, Giovanni Sepede and James Pritchard were our management team. And today, once again, they stand together now with three league titles under their belt, leading this team through a magnificent season, and especially this long unbeaten run that we’ve been on since Christmas.

Getting to this stage is a massive achievement for the team on the pitch. It’s not just about the first team, though. Three years ago, I brought Gio back to the football club and gave him the brief to build a pathway for our young players into senior football. He persuaded Jim to come back and bring his successful junior team, which established our Allied Counties team.

Many of those boys are in our first-team squad today and celebrating a great victory. We’ve also, in that time, created our Under-23 team, which is a valuable stepping stone into senior football. It’s this pathway, I think, which has laid the foundations for the success we see today.

On top of that, we’ve also recruited some great senior players into the club. But it’s not just a case of recruiting talent. That talent then needs to be moulded into an amazing culture. And football at this level is a true squad effort. We’ve played over 20 players in this last run of games, and to keep everybody happy, motivated and ready to perform is a huge, huge testament to the management of our management team.