‘We want people to be part of this football club’: The rise of North Ferriby FC
PROMOTED: North Ferriby FC will be playing in the Northern Premier League next season. Picture by Mark Leighton
EXCLUSIVE by Nick Quantrill
Not many clubs can boast back-to-back promotions in non-league football. Even fewer have managed to do it from a standing start and when contending with a global pandemic.
But following victory at Thackley AFC, that’s exactly what North Ferriby FC have managed to accomplish four years after the original club was wound up at Hull County Court.
“Our intention in the first place was to ensure that the community had its football club back up and running,” says Chairman Les Hare.
“I think from there onwards, you can then look at it from a football perspective and see at what level the football club will eventually lie, and that’s a journey that’s effectively unpredictable.
“I’ve always wanted the club to play at the highest level it possibly can. But it’s one thing to have a dream and an aspiration, it’s another thing to make it happen.
SUCCESS: North Ferriby FC have secured back-to-back promotions. Picture by Mark Leighton
“For it to occur, you need absolutely every piece of chemistry to come together, and that includes the support base, the players, the coaches, the management, the facilities - absolutely everything.”
Starting again at the bottom of the non-league pyramid by joining the Northern Counties East League Division One, a division made up of clubs predominantly from the Yorkshire region, the club’s first season was hit by the pandemic.
Promotion would be missed out on by the narrowest of margins when a contested ‘points per game’ formula was introduced.
“You can’t put it into words how tough it was,” says Les. “Fortunately, we have experience within the football club to be able to manage these things. Nobody panicked. We’ve always said, ‘there’s an easy way, there’s a hard way and there’s a Ferrriby way’. I think that’s stood for a long while. Nobody’s focus ever changed.”
The club’s first promotion followed in 2021/2022, but in Les’s words, it was never going to be simple.
“There’s something about play-offs, especially for supporters,” he says. “It just generates the hype and the hysteria. To think we’d pull just shy of 1,500 people into the ground for the final against Harrogate Railway was just incredible.
“I don’t think anyone who came to the game would have expected it to deliver in the way that it did, with the winning goal coming from the skipper 10 minutes from the end. The elation was there, the emotion was there. I haven’t seen so many tears for a long time.”
The juggernaut has simply continued to roll with the team leading the Northern Counties League Premier League from the first week onwards. With 15 wins from 18 games to date and 45 goals scored, supporters turning up regularly at the Dransfield Stadium are being richly rewarded.
The club boasts the biggest following in the division, the average attendance of 521 representing an increase of 25 per cent on the first promotion season.
But promotion to the Northern Premier League will undoubtedly represent a step up in quality and challenge. The geographical spread of opposition ranges from Newcastle down to Nottingham and across to the Pennines, competing against clubs with significant support and resources.
CHAMPIONS: The team celebrating promotion. Picture courtesy of North Ferriby FC Twitter account
“For me, everything comes down to preparation and it’s about being proactive rather than reactive,” Les says.
“We’ve got highly qualified coaching staff and continuity is something we look for. The team Chris Bolder and Paul Robson have put together has evolved over the last two years and is capable of playing at a step above, no problem at all.
“We don’t want to be making major surgery to the team as we move up a league. This side will form the core of what we want to do and the players deserve an opportunity to play at a higher level. We’re excited about that. Taking this squad of players forward is an exciting time for this club.”
It is clear that getting things right on the pitch runs alongside getting it right off the pitch. The commitment to doing things correctly again has paid dividends with a renewed relationship with Hull City.
“We’re getting that back again now,” says Les. “It’s absolutely crucial for any non-league football club to have a good relationship with the local professional club.
MOVING ON UP: North Ferriby FC Chairman Les Hare. Picture by Mark Leighton
“We’ve spent a lot of time and effort on our playing surface to attract these clubs to come and play here. It gives us an income stream, which helps us to maintain the football pitch properly too.”
The matchday experience at North Ferriby FC is something Les is also very proud of. It goes to the heart of what the club stands for, something he’s quick to credit the strong base of volunteers who make sure the club continues to tick with.
“Good manners cost nothing and we try to make people feel welcome here,” he says. “We work on the principle that the football club is a not-for-profit organisation - no-one’s taking anything out of this. Everything that we generate is funded back into the club. It therefore follows that our prices are as low as they can be so it’s sustainable, not profit-orientated.
“If it’s good value, people will come here and they will buy a programme, they will buy a raffle ticket, they’ll have something to eat and drink, rather than just watch the game of football and then go home. That for me, is part and parcel for how you want your football club to be, so it’s inclusive.
Community has been a guiding principle of how the club has operated since reforming, and something that will drive its future as it contemplates a more demanding level of football.
‘A GREAT BIG RED HEART AT THE CENTRE OF THE CLUB’: North Ferriby FC aims to grow as part of the local community. Picture by Mark Leighton
“We’ve gone from zero to 350 people playing football in a very short period of time, with 23 teams playing the game under the club’s name, all wearing exactly the same kit,” says Les.
“We’ve now got walking football at the senior end and we’ve children as young as four playing. It puts a great big red heart at the centre of the football club. I think it’s testament to everyone’s energy and commitment and it’s why we have ‘pride, passion and belief’ as our motto. The combination of these three things epitomises things perfectly.
“We want people to be a part of this football club. It’s about being part of a community. It’s how we continue to grow.”
North Ferriby play Handsworth at 3pm on Saturday, April 1, at the Dransfield Stadium, Church Lane, North Ferriby. Adults £5, concessions £3, children under 12 free.
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