Stowmarket Town manager keen to make an impact after promotion is confirmed

The process has been the cause of untold headaches for all concerned in recent months, but Stowmarket Town finally got the news they had been waiting for earlier this week – promotion.

When Covid-19 forced an early end to a second straight season in February, it seemed for all intents and purposes the Old Gold & Blacks were destined for another campaign in the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division.

It was a source of great frustration at Greens Meadow given the club were runaway unbeaten leaders in 2019/20 – only for that to be scrapped – while they had also started 2020/21 without defeat, albeit with only seven league fixtures played.

However, they were given some hope last month when the Football Association revealed clubs would be given the chance to apply to go up if they were deemed to have collected enough points during those two abandoned seasons.

And thankfully for Stowmarket, their performances were of a sufficient standard to see their proposal accepted, meaning they will play Step 4 football for the first time in their history next term.

Manager Paul Musgrove said: “All of this has been through no fault of our own. The club has never hidden the fact that it wanted to get promoted and because of Covid it has been a really frustrating time.

“It’s been really testing for everyone. We had the resignation of Rick (Andrews, former manager), the stop-start nature of football returning and then withdrawing from the Vase.

“We’ve got used to having to pick the lads up over the last couple of seasons – there’s been a couple of kicks in the gut.

“But we’ve kept going and even though it probably would have been a huge job to keep that momentum had we not gone up, we’d have done what we could.

“Thankfully we don’t have to worry about that now. I’m delighted for everyone involved at the club, there’s been a lot of hard work go into it.”

Now, Musgrove can start to fully operate as a manager of an Isthmian League North Division side.

While he always hoped that would be the case, when identifying transfer targets he had to factor in that the club may have remained at Step 5.

The move up has resulted in defender Joe Jefford staying in the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division with Gorleston, but a large majority of the squad remain committed to the new challenge.

And they will be joined by some new faces in the near future, joining first off-season recruit Anthony Spyrou, who has arrived from Holland FC.

“It was around February time that I started to plan for both outcomes,” added Musgrove.

“It seemed unlikely we were going up at the time, but I didn’t want to get caught with just having a Plan A. It would have been very naive and silly to assume one way or the other.

“From conversations with Joe I knew he couldn’t commit to Step 4 and he wanted to be a bit closer to home – he has gone with our best wishes.

“The rest of the lads who dropped down to play for us like Tom Bullard and Jack Ainsley, this seems to have given them a new lease of life. They were excited about the potential of going up.

“And now it’s all confirmed we can look to bring in a couple of new signings as well.”

As well as pitting themselves against established clubs like Heybridge Swifts, Maldon & Tiptree and Canvey Island, the jump up presents Stowmarket with some highly anticipated Suffolk derbies.

They lie in the middle of Bury Town and Felixstowe & Walton United on the A14, while AFC Sudbury is also a short trip across the county.

According to Musgrove, those are clubs should act as a source of inspiration going forward.

“It’s great for the area. I’ve heard the stories about the big crowds these derbies used to get and it would be great to get some of those numbers,” he said.

“I’ve got huge respect for the likes of Bury, Sudbury, Felixstowe and Needham Market. These are clubs that have gone up and really established themselves.

“They prove themselves year in year out and we should be aspiring to be like them. We want to make an impact like they have done.”

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