WITH THE GAFFERDEWI LLION JONES DENBIGH TOWN

Media Officer, Chris Parry spoke with the manager of the newly crowned Ardal North West League Champions.

You sealed the Ardal North West League title against Rhostyllen last weekend. The 2-0 win took you above Bangor 1876 to the top of the table for the first time this season (an amazing statistic) and what a time to do it. How does it feel to be league champions?

It’s difficult to really explain how I feel! Huge sense of relief, proud, and guilt aswell! I feel guilty that I havent been able to achieve this any sooner! I am so so proud of this group of players, and I cant thank them enough for their hard work and efforts

I feel this club has been mistreated by past managers. I now feel we are in a strong position as a club. Our juniors are thriving, the ladies and their youth setup are getting stronger every year. Off the pitch, plans are in place for us to be able to apply for the tier 1 license, and long term, that is our end goal. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this club

You've had a fantastic season overall and deservedly so. Full credit to you, your staff and players. I'm sure you would have mapped out your targets at the beginning of the season but have your achievements, even exceeded your expectations?

Thank you, but I’m sure the players who sat in front of me in the first pre season session would remember what my aims were for this team, and it was to win everything. The league was obviously priority, and the cups have created memories that will last a lifetime for the Players, Staff, Committee members and the supporters. It’s been a year that the players will never forget, now they are determined to finish on a high.

This will be Denbigh's second cup final of the season following your unbelievable run to the Dragon Signs FAW Trophy Final. Unfortunately, you were beaten by a stubborn Trethomas Bluebirds side in Newtown. Do you feel, the disappointment of losing that final will help your preparations for todays final?

Possibly yes. The lads were distraught watching Trethomas lift the trophy, especially in front of so many Denbigh supporters who had travelled to support us, so you’d like to think they will do everything possible to avoid that feeling again...

The reception the boys recieved when we arrived back in Denbigh was special, our pub The Masons was bouncing, and I dread to think what it would have been like had we have won.

The highlight was seeing my 7 year old son Caio stood on the pool table with my Assistant Manager Kristian Pierce both swinging their Denbigh Town FC shirts over their heads leading the Denbigh Town Chants.

You have three players in the Ardal North West Top 10 Goalscorer chart as well as having the best defensive record in the Ardal North West this season. Would you say the platform to your success this season is built on a solid defence?

Yes I’d agree with that. The lads are sick of me repeating myself, but from the start of the season my moto has been “Goals win games, Clean Sheets win leagues” and credit to the back 4 and Aaron, 14 clean sheets is good going. Its a very young back 5 aswell, and they deserve a lot of credit for this.

The back 5 tend to get the credit for clean sheets but I think something that has gone unoticed is how fit this group of players are. When a team can run as hard as these boys can for 90mins, it makes us a hard team to breakdown, and it’s clear that their hard work outside of training has been absoulutely worth it.