Lower Breck manager Gary Moore insists that the club’s upward movement into the North West Counties Premier Division is a “massive, massive lift” for the club.
This week, the Football Association announced the restructuring of the footballing pyramid.
The news come 12 months after the club were denied promotion as the Coronavirus saw their ambitions come crashing down after the FA’s decision to null and void competition’s within the non-league structure.
As a result, they missed out on the chance to play in the FA Cup, despite this week’s news of a promotion into the next step in the football pyramid, the 43-year-old believes that the club are still a year behind in their long-term plans, as they look to capitalise on the decision that saw a further 59 clubs move to Step 5.
Tuesday’s upward movement see’s Breck’s rise up the pyramid continue as they enter their 11th year, rising from the Liverpool County Premier League to the North West Counties Premier Division in just under three years.
He told Off The Park: “We were basically promoted 12 months ago so that did put us back and to not get into the FA Cup it was a massive blow so I’d say we were behind.
“We’ve only be going 10 years and we don’t like to stand still, for this to happen now rightly or wrongly it happening, we’ve just got to take it as a blessing and capitalise on what we lost.”
As a result of Tuesday’s announcement, Moore’s side can now prepare for the FA Cup as well as the FA Vase. The temporary restart saw his side win all four of their league games in Division One, but the stop-start and rushed manner in which the campaign resumed made for a “strange” start.
“We played some good football in them games (four league games and the handful of FA Vase ties) it was a bit strange in pre-season because we brought in two or three new faces a week or so before the start of the season, so they didn’t have a pre-season and one player, Karl Clair, came back after being out for six to eight months so it was tough.” He explained.
“We got into the season and we won the games playing good football and then obviously it’s all stopped, it was a blow, half the side wasn’t with us for the null and void season so they wasn’t as affected as the other lads but it’s given everyone a lift.
“Everyone’s sitting there knowing they’re in the Premier Division and now you’re looking forward to the FA Cup and the FA Vase again, so it’s given everyone a massive, massive lift.”
The announcement came at 3pm, an hour after the original scheduled time, as the eventual decision was met with rejoice by the Breckside 2019 quadruple winners. But in the build-up, those associated with the club pondered over “will it, won’t it” happen.
Now their attention turns to preparing for the likes of local rivals; Litherland REMYCA, Runcorn Town, Skelmersdale United and Burscough, as well as, the also elevated AFC Liverpool.
With that, the Breck manager has his sights on “bolstering” the Breck ranks as their preparations are slightly altered.
“It has slightly (changed preparations) obviously on the backend to the null and void season we lost about eight players, we lost a few higher up the pyramid and a few stepped aside because they didn’t want to have a go at it and then a few were injured so sadly they couldn’t carry on playing.
“Everything has got to go smoothly on the pitch, on the playing side making sure the players are here for the right reasons, the plans have had to change as we needed a more committed side.
“There’s going to be a few changes, a few players coming in, players were going to come in anyway. We already had a few irons in the fire but we’ve had one or two already move on and there will be a few more (going).”
At the time of the second curtailment of the North West Counties season, Lower Breck were just four points of league leaders AFC Bury, with three games in hand over The Shakers.
Moore explained: “As you go up the pyramid, you have to bring in a few more to bolster the squad, we wasn’t far off it last season, we had a very good squad last season we were looking good with what we had.
“There’s one or two players that we needed a little bit more from and we didn’t get it so sadly they will move on, that’s football really.
“What’s good for us we’ve got players knocking on our door, the right players, the ones you want to get involved so we’re looking forward to it.”
(Photo by Billy Bristow)
