LICHFIELD City boss Ivor Green has hailed a “great day” after his players lifted the league trophy.
The Trade Tyre Community Stadium side were crowned Midland Football League Premier Division champions after playing out their final game of the season against Romulus.
In a game that very much reflected their battling performances all season, City came back from a goal down at half time, with captain Dan Lomas and Leighton McMenemy nodding home to secure the win.
After full-time, the players and coaching staff were finally presented with the trophy they’d secured the week before and the celebrations began in front a season-high attendance.
Speaking after the trophy lift, the Lichfield manager was delighted to have finally sealed the title:
“It’s just been a great day for us. This doesn’t happen just through luck – everybody has worked really hard to make this happen and we got there in the end.
“It’s been five years in the making. We finished third in our first year [at step five] and that set the tone to go one better.
“We did that and got runner-up last year. The only thing left was this and we’re chuffed to bits.”
Green praised his side for learning and bouncing back after last year’s play-off final loss to Darlaston Town.
He said:
“It hurt losing out last year, but it tells you that you’re not good enough and it showed us what we needed to do.
“We’ve got some fantastic characters here now and I can’t speak highly enough of all the players.
“Early in the season we could tell that we had something. We had a great atmosphere, great dressing room and we believed we could do it.
“The dedication and the hard work has been the key. They’ve backed each other all year, they’ve worked so hard, and they were so determined to make this happen.
“I’m proud of every single one of them.”
The City manager was also full of praise for the crowd of 729 fans that came to watch him and his players lift the trophy.
He said”
“It’s brilliant. You’ve got the sponsors who have invested a lot of money into the club that are here today, the kids have really enjoyed it and the families as well.
“These lads have got families that follow them all over the place – for them to get the opportunity to see this, it means the world to us.”