DEADLY DUO’S EMOTIONAL SUCCESS
AN THONY JOHN-SON says Radcliffe’s title win – and his sixth in management alongside Bernard Morley – has been a life-affirming experience.
Boro celebrated romping to the NPL Premier championship last weekend as the club booked a first ever adventure to Step 2 football.
Joint-managers Johnson and Morley enjoyed back-toback success at Ramsbottom United before taking Salford City, in full Class of 92 spotlight, from Step 4 to Step 1.
They guided Chester to the National League North play-offs before a short spell at Spennymoor Town followed by an 11-month sabbatical that ended last summer when Radcliffe called.
It brought the duo back to their roots – and Johnson says this title feels different.
“This is our sixth one – Saturday was the first time I’ve stood back, watched the celebrations, people’s emotions and what it meant to them,” Johnson tellsls The NLP.
“People know what I am about, I am loud in terms of what we’ve achieved and I make no apologies for that. But, as I’ve got a bit older, I’ve realised how much it matters to peoplee outside of myself.
“I look at Bernard. He’s a born and bred Radcliffe lad. He lives 800 yards from the ground – literally his whole family live within a couple of miles of the ground. They all came to the game.
“I don’t think people understand the achievement of managing your hometown club to its highest ever position in the Pyramid, how profound that is.
“To take a small football club, double its average attendance within the space of a year, take it on its greatest ever FA Trophy run and also smash the NPL, at your hometown football club, I don’t see how it gets better than that.
“His son, who is 20 years old, his daughter, who plays for Manchester United, his wife, all on the pitch together – I could see the genuine emotion. You realise how big it is.”
Johnson’s family were at yesterday’s game too as they were presented with the trophy. It’s one they’ve been eyeing for some time with the swashbuckling side hitting top spot after their second game where they stayed from then on, bar one game in second in the middle of the season.
“Incredible, absolutely incredible the way we’ve done it,” Johnson says. “This isn’t me throwing out platitudes to sound good in the paper, but on the first day of pre-season we explained to the lads, me and Bern, why we came back into football and why we took the job.
Stress free
“That was to lose and shrug off that fear of failure. Just go out and enjoy it, play exciting football, attack, get people on the edge of their seats, get people wanting to c
