Ollerton Town’s debut season in the Northern Counties East League Division One ended in safety and a 17th place finish. The Town ended with 43 points from 42 games, 16 points clear of the bottom two. Despite losing our first seven league games, we soon steadied the ship and enjoyed a satisfying first year in the NCEL.
Josh Bowkett, a summer signing from Brodsworth, ended the season as our top goal scorer, netting 13 times.

The Summer

The summer got off to a turbulent start as first team coach Jamie Allan departed the club to take up the Assistant Manager post at Shirebrook Town. Manager Dave Winter and his assistant Stephen Bodle moved quickly to fill the position, ex-Rossington Main coach Jordan Wildey joining the club.
The club also had to contend with several player departures. Tom Cooke and Sam Dockwray left to join Shirebrook whilst Doncaster-based duo Josh Dodd and Josh Bowkett left to join Armthorpe Welfare.
There were also some new faces including Liam Cooper, Sean Dickinson and Gavin King. All would go on to be ever-presents throughout the campaign.
Pre-season got off to a terrible start as we were defeated 7-0 by Eastwood Community. Things soon improved though as we defeated Harworth Colliery, Staveley Miners Welfare and Newark Flowserve, as well as drawing with Rainworth Miners Welfare. A 2-1 loss to Collingham ended our friendly fixtures.

August

Excitement for the new season was at a high going into August and the league campaign could not have started much better for us as we won our opening four fixtures.
On the opening day, we defeated Dronfield Town 4-1 after a comprehensive display. We then travelled to Winterton Rangers the following Saturday and edged a five goal thriller 3-2, Lewis Bingham ultimately scoring the winner.
Four days later, Worsbrough Bridge were the visitors to The Lane and they left empty handed as a last minute goal by Gav King saw us run out 2-1 winners. Another home game followed against Brigg Town and despite playing much of the game with ten men, we ended up 3-0 winners to keep up our perfect start.
Our 100% record was always going to come to an end eventually and we ended the month with a 4-1 loss away at Campion before a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Rossington Main.

September

September proved to be a difficult month as we lost five and drew two of our seven games in all competitions.
The month began with a 1-1 draw against newly-promoted FC Bolsover before we conceded two goals in the last two minutes of the game to draw 2-2 with East Yorkshire Carnegie.
We were then narrowly beated 1-0 by eventual-champions Knaresborough Town before losing 4-3 in a local derby against Retford United.
A heavy 5-1 loss against Grimsby Borough followed before we were embarrassed in the FA Vase as we were eliminated in the second qualifying round after losing 4-0 to Westella & Willerby.
September came to a close with a 3-1 loss at home to Eccleshill United as we began to slide down the league table after our impressive start.

October

Thankfully for us, October proved to be a much better month for results as we also enjoyed some cup success.
We defeated Retford United 2-0 in the first round of the League Cup, goals in the final ten minutes by Ben Bowring and Gav King giving us a deserved win. Later in the month, we secured our progression in the Notts Senior Cup as we defeated Arnold Town of the East Midlands Counties League 3-1.
In the league, we drew 2-2 away at Glasshoughton Welfare, coming back from 2-0 down and another draw followed as we came back to draw 3-3 with promotion-chasing Yorkshire Amateur after being 3-1 down against the big spenders.
We slipped to a 3-0 loss away at Hallam before bouncing back well by ending the month with a 2-0 home win over Nostell Miners Welfare, an Ash Shannon goal and a Sam Stretton penalty giving us the three points.

November

The penultimate month of 2017 began with a 2-0 loss away at Armthorpe Welfare, two goals in the space of three minutes sentencing us to defeat.
We then travelled to Radcliffe Olympic in the second round of the Notts Senior Cup and cruised to a 3-0 victory, Chris Hewitt scoring a brace.
In our next league game, we upset the odds as we defeated Shirebrook Town 2-1 in a local derby before an impressive 3-3 draw away at Selby Town. These two results definitely highlighted what we're capable of on our day.
Three successive league defeats then followed as we were defeated by AFC Emley, Grimsby Borough and Eccleshill United.

December

We travelled to Worsbrough Bridge at the start of December and secured the double over the side from Barnsley as we won 4-2 with three of our goals coming in the final ten minutes of a crazy game.
A few days later we were disappointingly beaten 1-0 by Retford United in the third round of the Notts Senior Cup before, back in league action, a Jordan Harrison hat-trick sentenced us to a 3-2 loss away at East Yorkshire Carnegie.
The year came to an end on the 23rd December as we drew 2-2 at home to Swallownest, Gav King and Lewis Bingham scoring our goals.
We ended 2017 with a league record of: 12 wins, 9 draws and 19 losses.

January

The latter parts of 2017 and the early stages of 2018 saw the start of the terrible weather which would go on to cause havoc with many fixtures being cancelled.
Our first game of the New Year didn’t occur until the 13th when we hosted Winterton Rangers. We fell behind on the half hour mark but managed to secure a 1-1 draw thanks to Tom Moody’s effort.
Our first win of 2018 came against Clipstone in the League Cup. The Cobras scored in the 90th minute to secure a 3-3 draw and force extra time but thankfully we progressed when Mark Carter scored in the last minute of extra time.
We then got our biggest league win of the season as we travelled to Brigg Town and defeated them 5-1, Kyle Ludlow and Gavin King both scoring a brace.
The month ended with a narrow, home defeat to Rossington Main as we lost 1-0.

February

We responded to that Rossington defeat by beating FC Bolsover 1-0 at the start of February, Sam West scoring a rare goal to win the game.
A week later we were defeated at home by Knaresborough Town before 142 people were in attendance at The Lane as we drew 1-1 with Retford United. Despite their relegation from the league, we struggled against our near neighbours this season and they enjoyed the better of our four meetings, winning two and drawing one.
February ended with back-to-back defeats as Dronfield Town and Hallam both took the three points off us in closely fought encounters.

March

One of our best results of the season came in early March when we defeated Campion AFC 4-3, being 4-1 up at half time after an amazing, opening 45 minutes.
After a break of over two weeks due to the bad weather, we then narrowly lost to AFC Emley as Kyle Ludlow scored in the 90th minute of our 2-1 defeat.
We travelled to Nostell Miners Welfare on the final day of the month and repeated our scoreline against them from earlier in the season, winning 2-0.

April

A jam-packed April fixture schedule began with a 1-0 victory over Armthorpe Welfare at home, Gav King keeping up his great form with another goal.
We then played four fixtures in the space of ten days and unfortunately lost them all as our squad was stretched to it's thinnest, as we even played with a centre half in goal and an injured goalkeeper up front at one point.
Despite those defeats to Glasshoughton Welfare, Shirebrook Town, Yorkshire Amateur and Swallownest, we ended the league season with a 3-2 victory over Selby Town at home. Gav King got a brace whilst the versatile Callam Atkinson, who gave up playing football full time to focus on a career in boxing, got himself a goal.
The month ended with a League Cup fourth round tie against Grimsby Borough. We fell 2-0 down but managed to fight back and force extra time. That meant the momentum was with us and we managed to secure the victory, ultimately running out deserved 4-2 winners.

May

That Grimsby Borough win meant we advanced to the quarter finals where we faced Handsworth Parramore. Despite our opponents playing in the division higher than ourselves, we put in a terrific performance and pushed them all the way, though we were unfortunately edged out 2-1.

Summary

We ended the season in 15th place with 47 points, an improvement of two places and four points on last year. That has to be seen as a positive and the club achieved its main target of avoiding the dreaded 'Second Season Syndrome' by securing our safety in the NCEL for at least another season.
Despite this, there is a sense down at The Lane that we could, and possibly should, have done slightly better and there is a definite ambition to build on this season and push for a top half place next time out.

Star Man

Football is very much a team game but it would be impossible not to draw attention to the achievements of striker Gav King this season.
The forward has been prolific in front of goal, ending the season as our top goal scorer with an outstanding 29 goals in 47 games. That's a brilliant return at any level but to score that many goals for a side who finished in 15th is even more impressive.
Gav is a very popular member of the football club and we're all looking forward to seeing more of his goal-scoring exploits next season.

Ones to Watch

Goalkeeper Joey McCormack joined the club for his second spell at The Lane quite late into the season but he's already made a big impression. Since signing for us in January, Joey has proved why he's one of the most talented stoppers in the local area with a string of quality performances. Strong in all areas of his trade, we're all excited to see a whole season with Joey as our number one.

When Liam Cooper joined the club from Rossington Main, it'd be fair to say that few down at The Lane knew of him. That's all changed however as Coops is now firmly a fans favourite! The centre half ended the season as our top appearance maker, pulling on the Ollerton shirt an impressive 49 times. Liam has probably been a victim of not having a regular partner next to him in defence all season but he's still caught the eye with some great performances and, as he's only young, we're sure he's only going to get better next season.

View from the Bench

We spoke to first team coach, Jordan Wildey, for his thoughts on his first season at Ollerton:
"First of all, I want to thank everyone for making me feel welcome into the club. Overall I am a little disappointed we didn't achieve more in the league as we often performaned like a team that is more than capable of reaching the play-offs. Unfortunately, we were too inconsistent and in tough games, when we should've maybe looked at tightening up and settling for a point, we often found ourselves on the end of a narrow defeat. However, personally I am proud of the work that has been done this year, I'm sure no one could accuse us of being boring and we always went out to attack the opposition and play exciting football."