Campion boss Lee Ashforth excited for NCEL game with Silsden

His side travel to local rivals, Silsden for the division’s curtain raiser tonight (7:45 pm), and despite hoping to achieve promotion this season, the Campion boss isn’t going to let any sort of emotion way him down.

Speaking to the T&A, he said: “It’s my 16th season as a manager now at either Step Four, Five or Six and I don’t particularly feel pressure anymore.

“I love coaching and it’s a great place to be and my family can enjoy coming to the games too.

“So, the pressure is not there for me. Of course, I always want to succeed and improve with my team, but it’s all about the enjoyment for me.

“It’s just another season and I can’t wait to get started at Silsden on Friday night.”

Speaking about this evening’s opponents, Ashforth said: “I fully expect Silsden to be competing for the league title this year.

“They’ll have learnt from last year; openly, I’m sure they’ll admit that they made a couple of mistakes and ended up missing out on the play-offs.

“They’ve added to the squad and made it stronger, whilst they’ve also got an extra year under their belt now which is vitally important in this division.

“We’re expecting a competitive fixture on Friday, a game that will be exciting. Both teams will want to get off the mark early, so we’re in for a tough contest in our opener.”

Campion will be looking to make an early statement at rivals Silsden this evening (Image: Alex Daniel)

Reflecting on pre-season and the implications it has had on his side, Ashforth said: “Pre-season tends to be the same in non-league football, particularly in our area where you’ve got five or six clubs who are all vying for the same players.

“I get on with all the managers from the other local clubs like Danny Forrest, Lee Elam and Roy Mason. We tend to spend nine months being mates whilst helping each other out, and then the other three months we are ringing each other for players; that’s how it works.

“Strong budgets usually help with getting deals over the line at this level then, of course, the player has to make a decision with picking the right project.

“This summer, on the whole, I think we’ve recruited well.”

Ashforth added: “Of course, we didn’t want to lose Paddy Sykes to Bradford (Park Avenue), but he wanted to play at a higher level, so he goes with our best wishes.

“Marcus Harper also went to Eccleshill, which we knew was happening pretty much straight after the end of the season.

“Again, Marus was honest with us and wanted a fresh challenge, so he goes with our best wishes.

“It’s meant that we’ve had to go into the market and freshen the squad up, and I’m pleased with how it’s gone.”

Ashforth went on to reaffirm his belief that Campion have strengthened well but admitted that he won’t be getting ahead of himself ahead of what is expected to be another competitive NCEL Premier Division season.

He said: “If you ask any manager three or four days before the new season, I think most of them would say that they are aiming for the play-offs or the league title.

“However non-league football is not like that because we have no idea how a number of sides within the division have recruited.

“There will be other teams other than the usual candidates who have made crucial changes to their squad within the summer, and you’ll never truly know their full strength until the season starts properly.

“You tend to know what the team around are doing, like Thackley, Eccleshill, Silsden and Albion are doing.

“We’ve had a look at things and think we’ve got a very competitive squad, but we certainly won’t be getting ahead of ourselves.

“We know we need to win football matches to achieve our goals, which is to go one better and win the league title or achieve promotion, but we also know that nothing is guaranteed in this very competitive division.”